PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island is on track to receive 29,000 doses of two different COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the year, Gov. Gina M. Raimondo said Thursday during her weekly COVID-19 press conference.
The governor said these preliminary numbers are estimates based on recent planning conversations with federal partners and manufacturers. She said the state will receive approximately 10,000 doses of the Pfizer Inc. vaccine as early as the middle of this month and another 19,000 doses from Moderna Inc. a week after that.
Both vaccines require two doses, each administered three to four weeks apart.
“In a state of one million people, 29,000 doses only goes so far, particularly when you consider that every person needs two doses before they are fully vaccinated,” said the governor.
Raimondo said the state is looking to use technology to develop reminder systems, ensuring that people will know when they need to get their second dose. She said the state’s data team is already working to build systems that keep the public informed about how many doses are in Rhode Island, and how many have been administered.
“This is not a flip of the switch,” said Raimondo.
Both companies have stated that their vaccines are 95% effective. Raimondo said both vaccines have gone through three clinical trial phases with more than 70,000 participants between them.
The initial doses will be going to health care workers and other high-risk individuals, said the governor. The initial plan, which was drafted by the R.I. Department of Health in a 51-page report in mid-October, is in line with recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. RIDOH’s 16-member vaccine subcommittee is overseeing the planning process for the state, and will have additional guidance in the coming days, said Raimondo.
“I want to be very upfront: the vaccine is going to come into Rhode Island over the course of months, not weeks. And we’re all going to need two doses,” said Raimondo.
She said that while it’s tempting to believe that once a vaccine arrives, then the pandemic will be “a thing in the past,” but that it won’t be the case.
“Masks are still going to be part of our lives well into 2021,” said Raimondo. Social distancing will still be important, she added.
On Wednesday night, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, said to the newly formed task force on a COVID-19 vaccination distribution plan within the R.I. House of Representatives, where he said Rhode Island could be receiving a small batch of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 11, just a day after the company receives emergency authorization approval from the federal government. The Pfizer vaccine will have to be stored in “frozen conditions,” he said.
Similar circumstances will occur, Jha said Wednesday, when Moderna receives approval, expected on Dec. 17, but that vaccine may be slightly easier to store.
While Rhode Island awaits to begin vaccination, Raimondo said that the state has been planning to start distribution “for weeks” once doctors, researchers and scientists say the vaccine is safe. Raimondo said the state has already been working with hospitals to ensure that they have the supplies and personnel to receive, store, handle and administer the vaccine.
In addition, the governor said the state is reaching out to doctor’s offices, community health clinics, pharmacies and others to begin that same process, focusing on communities that have been hit hardest by the pandemic.
The governor added, “Hope is on the way.”
Alexa Gagosz is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Gagosz@PBN.com. You may also follow her on Twitter at @AlexaGagosz.
