Alabama’s coronavirus vaccination process is set to enter a complicated new phase in the coming days as hundreds of thousands of people who received their first dose return to get their second, and an additional 750,000 citizens become eligible to get their first.
On Monday, February 8, the state’s expansion of eligibility to all citizens age 65 or over and many categories of front-line workers begins. Also next week, the number of people seeking their second dose of the vaccine is set to increase.
“We have spent a month now giving people their first shots. … It is time for all those same exact people to come back and get their second shots,” said State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris at a briefing on Friday.
Of the two vaccines approved for use, the one from Pfizer requires two shots three weeks apart and the one from Moderna requires two shots given four weeks apart.
Alabama is completing its eighth week of providing vaccine shots, but the program markedly increased in scale midway through January, meaning the coming weeks will be the first where giving out second doses is a project on the same scale as first doses.
Notably, vaccine providers often lag a day or two in reporting how many doses they have administered, so the current week’s number of shots given out will likely increase to roughly the same level of the previous two weeks over the weekend when all the shots get reported.
As of Friday afternoon, the state has received 923,750 shots and administered 436,962 of them, good for 52.21%.
Alabama is expected to receive 74,325 first doses of vaccine product next week, and 60,450-second doses, per an announcement by the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH).
ADPH is taking 40,000 first doses and designating them to be given out at eight drive-in clinics that will be located in Anniston, Birmingham, Dothan, Huntsville, Mobile, Montgomery, Selma and Tuscaloosa. The department plans for the drive-in locations in those cities to give out 1,000 shots on each workday next week.
More details on the mass clinics are available here. Some will require appointments and some will not.
The relatively low supply of doses means that getting an appointment remains a challenge for those who are eligible.
ADPH continues to provide an online portal that Alabamians can use to check their eligibility and attempt to schedule a vaccination appointment.
“Generally speaking I would say our county health departments are booked through the middle of April,” warned Harris on Friday. “They are mostly focusing on second shots at this point.”
A map of all locations certified to provide the vaccines, including several that are not accessible via the online portal, can be found here at the “All Alabama Vaccine Providers” tab at the bottom of the page.
Henry Thornton is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him by email: [email protected] or on Twitter @HenryThornton95.
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