ST. LOUIS (KMOX/AP) - Missouri health officials say there are reasons both St. Louis County and the City of St. Louis didn’t receive the expected number of coronavirus vaccine doses in recent weeks, and why it took so long for doses to be shipped to the city of St. Louis.
However, state health officials offered an optimistic outlook Wednesday, saying significantly more vaccines are expected soon and more sites will be distributing the doses.
In St. Louis County, the Missouri Health Department’s Division of Community and Public Health Director Adam Crumbliss says there was a technical issue, with the federal distribution system.
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“Something to do with the way orders are placed in their system and the way their system tracks second doses," County health department spokesman Christopher Ave says. "The system didn’t allow them to make that delivery the way they wanted to.”
Ave says the state is working on the issue and on supplying sufficient doses to the region.
When it comes to the city, Crumbliss says the early doses were distributed to a private provider, rather than the city health department.
Meanwhile, state officials say Missouri now ranks 9th in the nation in doses administered per 100,000 residents over the last seven days with larger shipments coming in March.
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And as part of a new federal program, 81 Walmart and Sam’s Club pharmacies across Missouri will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines, beginning Friday. Additionally, 21 Health Mart independent pharmacies across the state will receive vaccine allocations soon.
During a video meeting Wednesday, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson told a group of mayors called Missouri Mayors United that the state is doing its best given the limited vaccine it is receiving from the federal government.
“The media’s just pounding me every way that they can pound any of us, saying ‘we don’t have enough vaccine, you’re not doing a good enough job, we’re not getting to the African-American community.’ I mean it just goes on down the list.” Parson said.
He urged the governors to emphasize to their constituents that it will take months to provide all the vaccination needed.
Margaret Stafford of The Associated Press contributed to this report
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