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State Officials 'Very Pleased' with Oklahoma's 1st Week of COVID Vaccine Distribution

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State health officials said on Friday they’re happy with Oklahoma’s COVID vaccine distribution system after its first week in action.

Doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived Monday and were distributed from five hubs across the state to 16 secondary sites. Deputy Health Commissioner Keith Reed said at last check, more than 50 counties reported shots had been given.

"That represents data that is over 24 hours old. So, we anticipate we even have a much greater reach than that. So, we feel good about getting the vaccine out to our hospital partners around the state using our hub and spoke model. Very pleased about that," Reed said.

Reed said Oklahoma didn’t lose any doses of the vaccine, either.

"There was one state, I can’t remember which one, that had a vaccine excursion, where they lost just a little bit of vaccine because it was — fell out of temperature range. We talked about how important that is. We have heard of no reactions that fall into those categories like what we’ve been told to watch for, the anaphylaxis situations," Reed said.

Alabama and California each lost nearly 400 vials of vaccine when two trays in their shipments fell out of temperature range. There has been one reported case of severe allergic reaction, an Alaska health care worker who was hospitalized but treated. Claims an Alabama nurse died shortly after receiving a shot have been proven false.

Officials stress the vaccine situation is fluid. Reed said a smaller than expected shipment is coming next week, but a third shipment at the end of the month wasn't factored into estimates the state will receive around 166,000 doses by year's end.

Pfizer released a statement Thursday saying the Trump administration has not told it where to ship millions of doses in the drug maker’s warehouse.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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