Detroit Sees Shortage Of COVID-19 Vaccine, Duggan Says

DETROIT, MI — The city of Detroit's health department is rescheduling some appointments patients had scheduled to receive their respective doses of COVID-19 vaccines after it was allotted about 4,000 fewer vaccine doses than it was expecting this week, Mayor Mike Duggan said Tuesday.

According to Duggan, the city was expecting to receive an increased total of about 10,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in its latest allotment. Instead, the city was dealt 6,000 doses, the fallout of the state receiving about 50,000 fewer doses in its most recent shipment from the federal government.

"We can work with 6,000, but it is not what we had hoped to try to keep expanding eligibility," Duggan said Tuesday during a news conference.

The federal government had said it would be increasing the amount of Pfizer vaccines being distributed to states this week, but when the most recent shipments of the vaccine arrived states quickly discovered they hadn't.

In Michigan, the state saw a shortfall of around 50,000 vaccines. The shortfall has meant some communities have had to cancel or reschedule some appointments for qualified individuals to receive their doses of the vaccine.

Similar to the city, Henry Ford Health System and the Wayne County Public Health Department also are rescheduling some COVID-19 vaccinations due to the shortage.

Duggan said Detroiters who have scheduled a vaccination appointment for Wednesday-Friday can keep their appointment, but they will be receiving the Moderna vaccine instead of the Pfizer. The only change will be for those individuals' second vaccination date, Duggan said, because the second dosage required with the Moderna vaccination comes a week later than the second dose for the Pfizer vaccine.

In Detroit, city residents 70 years and older, "good neighbors" 65 and up who drive 70-year-olds, K-12 schools reachers and employees and U.S. Post office employees who live or work in the city are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines.

Duggan on Tuesday expanded eligibility to include members of the FBI, ATF, DEA, U.S. Marshall, U.S. Attorney, Michigan State Police and Michigan Attorney General's office employees who live or work in the city. The mayor said he wanted to expand eligibility even more to include city residents who are 65 years old and up but said he can't until the city is getting about 10,000 vaccines a week.

"If we were to go to age 65, and there's 100,000 people in the city who live over 65, if we did it today, all that's going to happen is it'll overrun the phone system, and you won't be able to get appointments," Duggan said.

This article originally appeared on the Detroit Patch