State officials say they are able to store and distribute as much COVID-19 vaccine they receive from the federal government.
The state has already distributed over 107,000 of the nearly 121,000 doses it has received.
""We're always going to have a certain amount on hand with our partners - the hospitals, the pharmacies, and the physicians because they need to be resupplied every week so that they can get their vaccines into people's arms in that next week," said Gov. John Carney, at his weekly COVID press conference. "So there's always going to be a little bit of a flex there we try to keep it at the rate which our partners can deliver the vaccine so we don't get a backup.
And Carney adds if vaccine doses show up faster, it wouldn’t be an issue for the state.
"We actually could handle a lot more vaccines if the federal government was making them available,"said Carney. "We did get word on the White House call that we're getting a ramp up 22% more supply and guaranteed to a certain extent over the next three weeks so we can plan on that."
He says if the state received 100,000 vaccines a week, it could distribute them in a week.
Carney notes the importance of the vaccine in fighting the virus.
"The vaccination is really effective, both Pfizer and the Moderna, in preventing hospitalization and fatalities and that's really what we've been focusing on to try to keep those numbers down," Carney said.
Carney also looks forward to the roll-out of the Johnson & Johnson single dose vaccines - which he says will be a game-changer for getting people vaccinated.
Right now, the state is still in Phase 1B which includes all individuals 65 and over, frontline essential workers including fire, police, correctional officers, teachers and education staff.
U.S. postal workers, food manufacturing, agriculture workers, transportation, and grocery store workers are also in Phase 1B.
