Missouri last among states at giving vaccine

Missouri ranks dead last among states for the percentage of residents who have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

According to information from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Monday, only 242,937 Missourians have received their first shot or 3,958 people per 100,000 residents.

“As we have seen in many nationwide rankings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we expect rankings by the state of vaccine administration to continue to ebb and flow as the difference in rates among many states is marginal,” according to a statement from the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services issued Monday afternoon. “Currently, for instance, Missouri has the 10th lowest rate for new COVID-19 cases in the country with both PCR and antigen testing combined (6th when only accounting for the state’s confirmed PCR-tested cases).”

The statement said, as of Monday, that there were a total of 661,400 vaccines shipped to Missouri, and of those 304,434, (46%) were reported or administered. There were 351,000 doses administered, and 4.4% of the eligible population have received at least their first dose of the vaccine.

State-enrolled vaccinators in Missouri have administered over 60% of the doses shipped into the state for their use.

“The limited allotments that our state receives continues to limit the rate at which people are vaccinated, but we have also become aware that some of Missouri’s vaccinators have not been administering vaccinations as efficiently as we have been asking, but we are working with these providers to increase the speed at which they get vaccines into arms.,” the statement said.

According to the statement, a large amount of the distributed amount sits with the federal pharmacy partnership, which was activated to serve long-term care staff and residents.

“To date, unfortunately, the federal partnership has administered only 17% of those shots,” said the statement.

Of those, there were 332,000 doses allocated to the program with CVS and Walgreens, and 211,400 doses were also ordered by the participating pharmacies, while 56,498 doses were administered in 920 clinics throughout the state, based on their reporting.

The State of Missouri Interagency Vaccination Planning Team is responsible for determining where vaccines go throughout the state based on the limited amount of vaccine allotted each week to Missouri. The State places vaccine orders through federal partners on behalf of providers throughout Missouri who make vaccine requests through us, and then vaccines are shipped in the days following directly to the providers who vaccinate Missourians.

The statement said the State of Missouri “does NOT store or distribute the vaccines and ancillary supplies.”

While the vaccine slowly becomes more available in the area, the number of active cases continues to decrease.

The Scott County Health Department reported 19 new positive cases of COVID-19 from the weekend and Monday, while 27 have recovered. One person, in their 80s, did die resulting from the virus. It is the 75th death in the county since March.

As of Tuesday morning, there were 467 active cases in Scott County with 3,205 recoveries.

Those in Scott County wishing to receive the vaccine can sign up at: https://www.scottcountyhealth.com/covid-waiting-list.php

The Mississippi County Health Department reports seven new positive cases since Friday. The number of active cases has decreased from 53 to 45. The deaths remained the same at 28, and 1,219 are out of isolation.

The number of active cases at the Southeast Correctional Center in Charleston remains at six.

The last update by the New Madrid County Health Department reported 27 active cases with 1,955 out of quarantine and 41 deaths.

Those in New Madrid County wishing to receive the vaccine can sign up at: http://www.newmadridcountyhealthdept.com/covid-waiting-list.php

The Stoddard County Public Health Center reported 19 new cases since Friday with 79 active cases, 1,795 recoveries, and 61 deaths.

Those in Stoddard County wishing to receive the vaccine can sign up at: http://www.stoddardcountyhealth.com

— The Associated Press contributed to this report