PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island is inoculating about 1.5% of its population each week with the vaccines for the virus that causes COVID-19, according to R.I. Department of Health personnel, and receiving about 14,000 doses a week.
Through 9 a.m. Tuesday, the state had administered 26,163 doses of the vaccine to eligible Rhode Islanders.
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The state is continuing to work through the first phase of its distribution, for health care professionals, people in high-risk communities, incarcerated individuals and staff and nursing home workers and residents. It anticipates moving soon to professionals in Phase I that are still waiting, including outpatient specialists, such as dentists, and people who are 75 and older, according to Alysia Mihalakos, chief of RIDOH’s center for emergency preparedness and response.
On a Zoom conference call with reporters Tuesday, she said the state would be moving through Phase I at least through the end of February.
In other announcements, the state disclosed that “several hundred” people in Rhode Island were able to register inappropriately on Monday for a vaccination appointment, because eligible employees at various locations had shared their invitations.
The people who are ineligible are being removed from the schedule and will not be allowed to receive the shots, said Mihalakos, who said it was a cause of frustration and will lead to more front-line work at the locations administering the shots.
According to Mihalakos, the improper registrations occurred when employer groups received notifications that their employees could register for an available slot for the vaccine. She said some employees distributed that email to friends and family members, after they discerned there were still slots available.
“We’ve have been working with our vendor,” she said, to clean up the process. “We are not the only state experiencing it. The demand for vaccine is clearly very high and people are willing to push others aside in order to get themselves or their loved ones vaccinated.”
“It is laborious and it is heartbreaking, and it’s taking away from our primary mission, which is to get our prioritized groups vaccinated,” she said.
In other news, RIDOH reported that the state is participating in random sampling of tests which sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to monitor for a new variant of COVID-19 detected in the United Kingdom, and in other states, which is believed to spread more readily. So far, it hasn’t been detected in the Rhode Island samples.
And the state is continuing to follow the guidance for administration of the vaccines, which is a first shot followed by a second shot a few weeks later. Some other locations, including the U.K., are experimenting with longer intervals between shots in an attempt to inoculate more people, faster.
(Adds paragraphs 7-9 With detail, comment on improper registrations.)
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
