The Latest COVID-19 Vaccine News for the Week of March 19
Thanks to those who were able to join us this week for our webinars addressing the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. Please join us again on Monday for our ongoing weekly series for the latest COVID-19 related news.
Latest Vaccine News
Recent data from Israel shows the Pfizer vaccine is 94% effective at preventing asymptomatic and symptomatic spread of COVID-19. These findings are particularly important because more than 80% of Israel’s COVID_19 cases were from the UK variant; demonstrating that the Pfizer vaccine is equally effective against this more contagious variant.
Last week, Michigan announced that all residents 16 years old and up will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on April 5. Caregiver family members and guardians who care for children with special needs are currently eligible for vaccination. Beginning on Monday, people age 16 to 49 with certain medical conditions or disabilities and residents age 50 and up will be eligible for vaccination. Employers and individuals are encouraged to contact their local health department to determine if their county has made the vaccine available to additional categories of individuals. For example, in Detroit, residents age 50 and up are already eligible.
Latest Distribution and Administration Numbers
According to the CDC, 154.2 million vaccine doses have been delivered and 118.2 million doses have been administered. In the last week, an average of 2.09 million shots were administered per day. Last Saturday, the CDC reported about 4.6 million new doses were administered which was a new record, nearly double the prior daily record.
Here in Michigan, over 3.85 million doses have been distributed which is an increase of about 432,000 from last week. This included 100,000 doses of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine that was primarily distributed to local health departments. Approximately 500,000 Michiganders were vaccinated in the last seven days which is an increase of 100,000 over the previous week. Michigan has now administered more than 3.3 million doses of the vaccine. Early on most vaccines in Michigan were administered by hospitals. However, at this point nearly as many vaccines have been distributed by local health departments as hospitals.