MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – West Virginia is leading the nation in the rate of distribution of COVID-19 vaccine and that rate could improve following an announcement from WVU Medicine. On MetroNews Talkline Albert Wright said they will establish mass vaccination events at large event spaces over the next two weeks.
“Starting around January 25 we’re going to try to put clinics in open spaces,” Wright said,” In convention centers, arenas and gyms so we can start to mass vaccinate the population.”
According to Wright, they have 300 COVID patients across their system and elective procedures have been reduced by 50 percent. Hospitals have the qualified professionals to deliver the vaccine and the incentive to aggressively push it out to the public.
“We’ve got the folks that know how to give vaccines- we’ve got pharmacists, we’ve got nurses and we can do it in a scaled up way,” Wright said,” We’re very incentivized to get the population vaccinated to get back to normal so we can be doing our elective procedures and get our staff back.”
Establishing the infrastructure to receive, properly store and administer the vaccine will become vital as more shipments quantities increase.
“WVU alone, we’ll be able to do, as of the 25th, we anticipate we can do up to 7,500 vaccines a day,” Wright said.
Mobilizing the hospital system to administer the vaccine is an effective use of the resource.
“I believe the hospitals are in a great position to have these large clinics up and running,” Wright said,” The we can follow the state criteria- over 80, over 70, over 60, teachers, veterans- you name it.”
Wright insists large hospitals have the staff, expertise and capacity to successfully conduct the effort.
“Hospitals, like I said are incentivized and in a great position to do that,” Wright said,” That allows you to set up enough phone lines, have enough staff and know exactly what kind of vaccine amounts you have. We’re putting that together and we’ll more details in the coming weeks.”