RI Coronavirus Vaccinations: Not Enough Supply To Meet Demand

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island's Coronavirus vaccination effort is well underway, with more than 38,000 residents having received at least one dose. However, the state's supply of vaccines from the federal government remains limited, the head of the Department of Health said Wednesday, which hampers the distribution effort.

"We are doing the best with the supply we have," Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott said. "What we receive, we get out."

The state is currently receiving about 14,000 vaccine doses each week, enough to vaccinated about 1.5 percent of the state's population.

"That may seem like a lot, but it's a tiny percentage of the overall population," Alexander-Scott explained.

Each day, about 2,000 vaccines doses are administered in Rhode Island, meaning an approximately equal number of vaccines are being administered per week as are being received. Because the pandemic makes it impossible to hold large-scale vaccination clinics, doses must be administered by appointment only and require careful strategic planning. In general, vaccine doses received by the state are actually administered to people about a week later.

The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention's said that states should prioritize vaccinations for everyone ages 65 and older. In Rhode Island, the current guidance of 75 years or older will remain in place, Alexander-Scott said, until a greater supply becomes available.

"It is challenging to move any faster than we are right now," she said.

The doctor explained that while she wholeheartedly supports the guidance from the CDC, it "would not be responsible" to open the floodgates to so many more Rhode Islanders to get vaccinated without an increased supply of doses to give them.