Updated Feb 17, 2021 - Health

Winter storm causes "widespread delays" of COVID vaccine shipments

Photo of two people shoveling snow next to a line of cars — Chicago residents dig out their car after a snowstorm coupled with lake-effect snow dumped more than 17 inches of snow in some areas of the city. Photo: Scott Olson via Getty Images

The winter storm sweeping across Texas and much of the U.S. has posed new obstacles to coronavirus vaccination efforts.

Driving the news: Hazardous weather has slowed deliveries from two central distribution hubs for the Southeast. The U.S. government is projecting "widespread delays" in vaccine shipments in the next few days, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) spokesperson told the Washington Post.

The CDC did not specify how many doses scheduled for delivery this week will be impacted.

The state of play: Several regions have canceled vaccination efforts, including Alabama, Indiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Tennessee and the Chicago area.

The Texas Department of State Health Services tweeted that it expects this week's shipments to arrive Wednesday at the earliest, depending on local conditions.
In Houston, the public health agency lost power and had to distribute thousands of shots before they went bad.
Missouri shuttered all large-scale vaccination sites through Friday.
Some counties in Minnesota have had to cancel vaccinations, a Fox News affiliate reports.
The grocery chain Publix stopped taking vaccine appointments in Florida, South Carolina and Georgia due to shipping delays.
The weather is expected to disrupt vaccine shipments from a FedEx facility in Tennessee and a UPS installation in Kentucky, which both operate as shipping hubs for several states, the Biden administration said.

The big picture: The storm has led to a number of deaths as well as a widespread power outage across Texas.

The bottom line: "No one wants to put vaccine at risk by attempting to deliver it in dangerous conditions," the Texas DSHS said in its Twitter post.

The other side: The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that the number of vaccines being sent weekly to states will increase again, from 11 million doses to 13.5 million, per The Post.

And FEMA launched its first mass COVID-19 vaccination sites yesterday in Los Angeles and Oakland. The sites are part of the administration's plan to distribute vaccines faster and to hard-hit communities.

Add Axios on Google

Winter storm causes "widespread delays" of COVID vaccine shipments

What to read next