PIERRE, S.D. (KELO) The COVID-19 vaccination has arrived in South Dakota and there will be enough in the next weeks to vaccinate the key frontline health care workers, South Dakota State Department of Health Secretary Kim Malsam-Rysdon said on Wednesday.

The state will receive 7,800 doses of Pfizer vaccine and expects 14,600 doses of Moderna vaccine next week. The total doses of the two vaccines will be enough to cover the 19,000 people designated as priorities for the first phase, she said.

The DOH has added a feature on its website that allows the public to track the vaccine doses and number of people who receive it. The DOH information also shows the number of vaccines and people vaccinated in each county.

As of Wednesdays update, 405 individuals have been vaccinated, according to the DOH website. The number includes 153 in Minnehaha County, 74 in Lincoln and 67 in Pennington. Those three counties were top priorities for delivery of the vaccine, DOH officials said.

Twenty-three people have received the vaccine in Codington County. The South Dakota Wing of the Civil Air Patrol said it delivered doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 15 to Prairie Lakes Healthcare System in Watertown, which is in Codington County.

Prairie Lakes officials said in a KELOLAND News story they would be vaccinating their frontline workers. It would also be a distribution site for members of the regional health care network.

Nursing home residents are among the priority individuals to receive the vaccine. So far, 204 individuals aged 80 and older have been vaccinated.

Malsam-Rysdon said the DOH will provide the vaccination from the federal government in a series of steps, according to its COVID-19 vaccination plan.

It will be at least several months until the general public can receive a vaccine.

The Veterans Administration facilities in the state and the health care facilities on Tribal Lands will be provided the vaccine through federal officials. Malsam-Rysdon said the state will not be involved in those vaccination plans.

Who gets a vaccine first in South Dakota?There is a 3 phase approach of vaccine administration

Throughout Phase 1 and Phase 2, South Dakotas three primary health care systems Avera, Sanford and Monument Health will provide the vaccination services to priority populations.

Who is in Phase 1 of getting the vaccine? The state determined through an allocation criteria four key priorities

Based on that criteria, health care workers, first responders and older adults living in congregate settings will receive the first vaccines as described in Phase 1A and Phase 1B.

How much vaccine is needed to cover Phase 1?Estimations for the population for Phase 1A are 23,171. Vaccine dose allocation will continue under Phase 1A until the population is met. Phase 1B will start after Phase 1A.

South Dakota is set to receive 7,800 doses of Pfizers vaccine starting Monday, Dec. 14. Pfizer will send another set of 7,800 doses within about three weeks to provide second doses to people who got the first round of shots.

When will Phase 2 start? Health officials said limited vaccine doses are expected throughout Phase 1 and Phase 2 isnt expected to start until 2021. As vaccine becomes available, location of vaccination sites will be found at Vaccinefinder.org.

DOH officials also briefly discussed the states percent positivity rate for the last seven days which is 9.9% as of Wednesday.

But as of Dec. 15, only nine counties had weekly rates lower than 9.9%, according to the DOH website. Some countys had percent positive rates as high as 44.39% and 33.73%.

DOH epidemiologist Dr. Josh Clayton said the weekly table rates for each county and the last seven day rate posted for the entire state will only match one day a week because of how they are tabulated.

The percentage includes the last seven full days that the DOH has RT PCR tests for, Clayton said. The county table percentages are based on the past week, Clayton said.

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DOH updates website to reflect vaccination progress; addresses difference in positivity rate information for state, counties - KELOLAND.com