On the national level, 29.3 million doses have been distributed and 10.2 million people have received the first shot of the approved vaccines.

On Friday, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said state and federal officials had been told late Thursday that no such stockpile actually existed, and there would be no influx of vaccine doses.

Keith Reed said he learned Thursday from a contact at Operation Warp Speed that shipments of second, or boost, doses of the vaccine will not be separated from the first, or prime, doses.

The new state guidance addresses only people aged 65 and older. They also say that a hard-working but understaffed nursing team struggled to keep residents isolated and care for those who were sick as the virus spread through the facility. There also is concern about another COVID-19 surge after January as people who unsafely gathered for New Year's Eve start to sicken. Florida and Georgia and Washington, D.C., had already started doing this. Those who qualify should make arrangements to be vaccinated by visiting the provider website or by calling ahead.

FDOH in Lee County is waiting for information on when and how much vaccine will be available next week. Residents are urged not to contact their physician or healthcare provider directly for COVID vaccine appointments. To those not yet eligible for vaccines, your turn is coming. That list will grow and it will include grocers and retailers like Walmart that have pharmacies, aside from just drugstores like CVS or Walgreens. While we appreciate the state's shared interest in vaccinating our most vulnerable populations, the unfortunate reality is that the state has not sent us sufficient supply to vaccinate our community members.

Though the County does have a chart listing a priority line-up, how fast the line moves down the priority list depends on the number of vaccines shipped to the county each week, according to Montgomery County Deputy Health Officer James Bridgers.

If Jefferson County residents of all ages sign up on the Jefferson County EMA webpage or call the hotline we can get the vaccines out as effectively as possible.

Senior citizens age 75 and older can register for appointments to receive the vaccine through a health care provider, a state web portal, or a dedicated telephone line. Teton County is home to 23,464 people, according to the most recent statistics from 2019. "Due to the federal government's limited allocation, appointments have filled up quickly".

CA is significantly increasing our efforts to get vaccines out. Calls will continue through the weekend until Tidal Basin has scheduled all appointments.

Newsom said Monday the state has only administered about one-third of the almost 2.5 million vaccine doses it has received so far.

The release said all vaccinations will be done by appointment to avoid wait times, and all people vaccinated will have a 15-minute wait period afterward in case of an adverse reaction. It does not advance eligibility among people with underlying health conditions.

The news agency reported the drugmaker said it was confident that the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology it used was well suited to deploy a vaccine based on the new variant of the coronavirus which has emerged in a handful of countries.

It should be free. At this time, those who get the vaccine should continue to wear masks and practice social distancing.