The newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine will soon become another option in the war on COVID-19, as City of Memphis officials anticipate eventually increasing the number of shots given every week in Shelby County to between 40,000 and 50,000.
The state announced Tuesday that the federal government will initially ship Tennessee 54,000 Johnson & Johnson doses on Wednesday.
But Memphis’ chief operating officer, Doug McGowen, who is now overseeing Shelby County’s vaccine distribution process, says there are still questions as to how many of the new one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be allocated locally or to whom they will be offered.
Some could be designated for specific populations that might struggle returning for a second shot, such as the homebound or people experiencing homelessness.
Tennessee’s health commissioner, Dr. Lisa Piercey, also gave examples of urgent care centers or emergency rooms.
“Also, it’s really well suited for large mass vaccination sites,” she said Tuesday afternoon at a briefing. “It’s a one and done—very quick and easy—easy to transport out into the field, so I think you will see that in several different locations.”
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not have to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, unlike the other two vaccines currently available.
Even without the addition of doses from Johnson & Johnson, McGowen says an expansion in national production of the Pfizer and Moderna vials means the county’s allotment of new first doses will increase in mid-March by about 45 percent, to 20,000 per week.
That allowance will be doled out through the city-run drive-up and pop-up sites, as well as community clinics and hospitals.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” McGowen said. “We’re aiming to get about 700,000 people vaccinated by this summer by about the first of August.”
He says that while appointments to get a shot currently fill quickly, about 10 percent don’t show up, which complicates planning.
About 50,000 people are registered on the county’s VaxQueue waiting list for leftover doses when there are absences, but McGowen says new signups are paused until the city determines whether or not it wants to keep the system in place.
“We do have a heck of a lot of names on there, and those are the folks that we will call at the end of the day,” he said.
