Delaware plans to create hubs across the state to speed up its distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The state looks to designate outpatient, urgent care, primary care practices and others up and down the First State as vaccination hubs to expand the effort to inoculate people in the 1A group—particularly front line health care workers who are not affiliated with a hospital and can’t just get the vaccine from their employer.
Delaware Division of Public Health Chief Physician Dr. Rick Pescatore encourages those in the 1A group or sites looking to become vaccination distributors, to register through the state’s online immunization registry, DelVAX.
“We will serve as a DPH Match.com, if you will, performing match-making between entities within phase 1A that have reached out in need of vaccination and paring them with hubs that have been identified as vaccine providers,” said Pescatore.
The second part of Delaware’s first phase of vaccine distribution is expected to begin in the coming weeks.
The 1B group includes people over the age of 65 and nearly 90,000 frontline workers statewide identified in a survey.
Pescatore says the state will use vouchers to confirm people are part of the priority group.
“When we move into phase 1B, we will likely become dependent and prioritize the use of voucher systems for identification of individuals who belong to essential critical infrastructure workgroups,” said Pescatore. “Additionally, individuals who are 65 years or older will be identified solely by their identification.”
More than 23,800 doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in Delaware as of Saturday.
But Pescatore says there is likely a lag in that number, as there has been a significant lack of compliance with vaccinators to input data for the state vaccine tracker.
