Recently, the vaccine of Johnson and Johnson got approved. With the approval of this vaccine, many health centers that are currently short-staffed are feeling relieved. The reason being this vaccine only requires a single dose as compared to the two doses of Moderna and Pfizer. This will mean less work.
Health centers don’t need to track the people who are taking two doses. Further, they don’t have to notify about taking the second dose. A single shot does the work. The first batch of the dose is sent to the Taxes. This vaccine is bringing a new ray of hope to America.Â
The Arrival Of The Johnson And Johnson Vaccine And Its Distribution To The IHS
With this 3rd COVID-19 vaccine being available to the people, the Indian Health Service wants to attempt to administer by March 31, to give 1 million shots to the Indian Americans.
Across the U.S., the IHS has already offered more than 5 million doses of vaccine on December 15, with more than 135,000 doses which are already administered via federal and tribal operated centers in the Oklahoma City area.
The place includes all of Kansas and Oklahoma, plus a part of the Texas city and also a county in the Nebraska area. Of the total 1.35 million doses in the city areas, there are 10,000 which are administered in the state of Oklahoma.
Apart from the regular distributions of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the IHS will also be receiving an extra allocation of more than 21,900 doses initially from the recently approved vaccine of Johnson & Johnson, with about 7,500 doses which are earmarked for the Oklahoma facilities.
One of the main reasons why the clinic can effectively plan their vaccination is because this vaccine plan is quite flexible on the local level as said by Elizabeth Fowler, IHS Acting Director. This was said by him at the Oklahoma City Indian Clinic on the morning of Tuesday.
Each of the 12 IHS areas is quite flexibly built which depends on the number of the allocated doses per day, and tribal schedules, as well as urban programs, are given the necessary flexibility for establishing the population’s priority for the said vaccines.
These clinics know the best which people need these vaccines in their communities. For instance, the Cherokee Nation decided to prioritize the fluent speakers of the area as a priority population group that needs preservation.
As per the data which was released in December by the CDC or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that the Americans of Indian origin and natives of Alaska across the U.S. have a 3.5 times higher tendency to contract the COVID-19 virus than the other people and they are twice likely to die as well from it.
Till Tuesday early morning, the Indigenous people are almost 10% of Oklahoma’s total COVID-19 virus-infected count, as per the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
For minimizing and eventually stopping the spread of the virus in the Indian Country, the federally operated service unit’s facilities in Pawnee, Claremore, Lawton, Wewoka, El Reno, Watonga, Anadarko, Clinton, and Carnegie have cleared up their vaccine appointments to make it available got the non-Indigenous caregivers and tribal citizens household members. The vaccination program access at the Wewoka and Claremore is limited to people above 18years of age and older.
By Tuesday afternoon, it was announced by the Cherokee Nation that the distribution of the vaccine distribution efforts at the health care facilities extends to all household adult members of these tribal citizens.
This particular tribe has already made a self-governance agreement with the IHS that will allow it to operate the facilities in Salina, Ochelata, Jay, Muskogee, Tahlequah, Sallisaw, Nowata, Stilwell, and Vinita.