MADISON, W.Va. — Officials with the Boone County Health Department say they are unsure when they will get their next doses of the Covid 19 vaccine for distribution. The Department of Health and Human Resources recently suspended the supply of the vaccine to the department until they are able to review protocols.
“Somebody from the state is going to come down this week and review all of the policies and procedures. It’s an audit and we go through these all the time. After that we’ll see,” said Boone County Health Department Administrator Julie Miller.
The department came under scrutiny when one of their allotted shipments from the state turned out to be anti-bodies rather than the Moderna vaccine. Miller said it was impossible to tell the difference.
“There were three nurses who looked at it and I showed a vial to a doctor here who I respect. They all said it looked right. The colors matched, the numbers matched the forms and the lot numbers all matched,” she explained.
Miller added Boone County wasn’t the only county to receive the antibody vials by mistake. However, they were the only one to administer it. According to Miller, there were people waiting in the parking lot of the Boone County Health Department when the vaccine arrived. It wasn’t until later they got a call from the state DHHR a mistake had been made.
The review of the Boone County Department is the believed to be the last segment of a system wide review of the entire distribution process. Miller said there is a very limited supply of the vaccine, but added some local outlets in Boone County still have a few doses.
“They can call one of the local pharmacies or a primary care center. Some of them have it, but I don’t have a list of which ones,” she said.
West Virginia is ahead of most states in distributing the vaccine as it arrives, but officials say not enough is flowing into West Virginia to meet the demand.
Miller hoped the Boone County Health Department would be cleared by next week to restart vaccination work as soon as their next allotment arrived from the state distribution hub.