Trending
STEUBENVILLE - Jefferson County went into Phase 1B of the state's vaccine distribution plan about a month ago, and, according to county Medical Director Dr. Mark Kissinger, that process is going as well as the supply allows.
"It's going well," he said.
"The biggest challenge we've had is supply. The state is just not sending out as much as we had hoped for. I don't think (the state is) doing anything wrong, we just nationally do not have a sufficient supply right now."
The challenge, he said, has been the short turnaround from finding out the exact number of doses available, contacting the eligible citizens who have signed up to receive the vaccine and getting it into their arms.
"This is supposed to be changing, but how it's worked is we find out on Wednesday that we're likely to get (an estimated number) of doses on Monday.
"But, we can't call people until Monday because we don't know for sure that we're getting (that number)," Kissinger said. "Sometimes it's been (less), sometimes its been (the exact number).
Then, we're hurrying up on Monday to call people and let them know on Thursday, 'Hey, you're up if you can make it in.' Then we schedule them.
"It's a difficult challenge to schedule because we don't know how many doses we're getting until they arrive."
He said the county, currently, has around 11,000 people signed up through the county's form, available on the health department's website.
He said the health department, Trinity Health System and CHANGE Inc. are now working together with the same county sign-up form to help streamline the process, though there are other entities offering a separate sign up, such as Kroger and Walgreen's.
"It's gotten better since (they started using the same form)," he said.
"It's very helpful. The problem has been there are multiple different points to sign up, which sometimes helps, but has also led to confusion.
"I would tell anyone that wants to sign up to go to the county website. There are other places where you might be able to get it in the county, but the largest chuck of the supply is going to be distributed through (the county) website and the two biggest vaccinators (the health department and Trinity) are through that sign up."
He said the partnership between the county and Trinity in particular has been very beneficial.
"It's been huge to work with Trinity," he said.
"Trinity has done the majority of the vaccines for the county so far, and not just health care workers.
"As far as Phase 1B goes, the volume that Trinity has done has been more than the county has been able to do."