While progress is being made, daily administration of COVID-19 vaccines in Arkansas continues to move at a slow pace, especially for vaccines that pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens have contracted with the federal government to administer to long-term care facility residents and workers. Our two new infographics depict the respective paces of the vaccine rollout under state and federal programs.
The data used to create these infographics come from the Arkansas Department of Health, which began publicly reporting state vaccine data on Jan. 4.
The first infographic, “State-Allocated Vaccines Received and Administered in Arkansas,” shows the day-to-day trend of the cumulative or running total of, vaccine doses received and administered at hospitals, long-term care facilities, and other facilities in the state. “Total Doses Received” represents the number of vaccine doses that have been received from vaccine manufacturers and are available for use in Arkansas. “Total Doses Administered” represents the number of vaccine doses that have actually made it into the arms of eligible Arkansans.
As of Jan. 4, the state had received a total of 124,325 vaccine doses and had administered 28.1% of those doses. By Wednesday, Jan. 20, the state had received a total of 312,225 vaccine doses and administered 52.8% of them.
The second infographic, “Federally Allocated Vaccines Administered in Arkansas” shows the day-to-day trend of the running total of vaccine doses allocated and administered through the Long-Term Care Federal Program. “Total Doses Allocated” represents the number of vaccine doses that have been set aside for residents and staff of long-term care (LTC) facilities participating in the federal program. “Total Doses Administered” represents the number of vaccine doses that have actually been given to LTC facility residents and staff.
As we noted in a previous blog post, the federal government partnered with CVS and Walgreens to manage vaccine distribution to LTC facilities that chose to participate in the program. About 40% of the state’s LTC facilities chose to contract with the two large pharmacy retailers to vaccinate their residents and staff. As the second infographic shows, the state has been allocated a total of 49,400 vaccine doses through the federal program. As of Jan. 4, 5.4% of those vaccine doses had been administered to residents and staff of participating LTC facilities. As of Wednesday, the percentage had increased to 13.8%.
