GoLocal Daily RI Vaccination Update: RI Continues to Fall Behind, Only 42% Administered Says CDC

Sunday, January 24, 2021

GoLocalProv News Team

 

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Sunday’s GoLocal vaccination update provides the most up-to-date information and data on the Rhode Island vaccination program as well as emerging national and global developments.

1. Rhode Island Continues to Fall Behind in Administering the Vaccine It Has Received

According to new data from the CDC released Saturday night, Rhode Island has received nearly 150,000 coronavirus vaccine doses, but has administered just over 63,000 — a rate of 42%.

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There are growing concerns about the state’s program is not focused on the Rhode Islanders who are at the greatest risk.

AARP Rhode Island on Friday called on its 132,000 members and all Rhode Islanders to join in demanding that Governor Gina Raimondo and state leaders to immediately revise the state’s vaccination plan to prioritize and protect the lives of the state older residents.

“Rhode Islanders 50 and older account for nearly 98% of the state’s more than 2,000 COVID total deaths,” said AARP Rhode Island State Director Kathleen Connell. “The Governor and State Leaders must revise the vaccination plan so that it focuses on the most vulnerable among us.”

According to the CDC and updated on Saturday, RI has now:

Received 149,255 doses

Administered 63,249 doses (less than 3,000 administered in past 24-hours)

Of the vaccine doses received, RI has utilized 42% —a drop from 53%*

updated 1/24/2021

 

2. Even After Vaccination, Concerns that Individuals Can Spread Virus

The BBC is reporting that “people who have received a Covid-19 vaccine could still pass the virus on to others and should continue following lockdown rules, England's deputy chief medical officer has warned. Writing in the Sunday Telegraph, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam stressed that scientists 'do not yet know the impact of the vaccine on transmission.'

He said vaccines offer "hope" but infection rates must come down quickly. Matt Hancock said 75% of over-80s in the UK have now had a first virus jab.

Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines require two doses, and figures so far reflect those given the first dose. The health secretary told the BBC's Andrew

Marr that around three quarters of care homes had also been vaccinated. Van-Tam said "no vaccine has ever been" 100% effective, so there is no guaranteed protection."

 

3. NYT Report Warns Return to Normalcy Is Far Off

A New York Times report warns that even with the vaccination program rolling out, the return to "normalcy" is far off.

The Times report:

There is no doubt that getting vaccinated protects the recipient. Still, several infectious-disease researchers contacted by The New York Times cautioned that it would be months before enough people in the United States will have gotten the shots to allow for normal life to begin again.

Only then will the number of people with immunity — those who have had the disease and recovered, plus those who have been vaccinated — be large enough to take the wind out of the pandemic, said Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia who shared his team’s modeling calculations.

Dr. Shaman estimates that more than 105 million people have already been infected across the U.S., well above the number of cases that have been reported. And his projections show millions more infections are yet to come as the vaccine rolls out.

 

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