State health officials believe they’re on their way to getting Oklahoma’s COVID vaccine plan approved by the federal government.
"The CDC was here just a few days ago, and they told us that we will probably be the first state in the nation to go green with their vaccination plan because we’re very close to finishing that up," Interim State Health Commissioner Lance Frye told the State Board of Health on Tuesday.
Frye said they’ve been told at least one vaccine will be ready sometime after Nov. 1.
"It’s going to be a phased, a tiered approach to how it is distributed to us and therefore how we distribute it out. And that’s about as much as we know right now," Frye said.
Health department Chief Communications Officer Jackie Shawnee said they’ve used outside consultants while developing the vaccine plan.
"This group is vetted and made recommendations on priority distribution for groups, and we’re working we’re working to finalize those in the coming days," Shawnee said.
The health department will hold a tabletop exercise Thursday to go through its plan.
The White House approved tough new standards for coronavirus vaccines on Tuesday, the same ones the Food and Drug Administration proposed weeks ago.