PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Almost 200,000 COVID-19 vaccines that were meant to be saved for 2nd doses for Pennsylvanians were instead given out to other people as first doses.
Now, the state department of health is readjusting the timing of some shots to fix the issue.
The Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of Health is now calling the COVID-19 vaccine issue "a perfect storm of circumstances."
"Some providers inadvertently used the Moderna vaccine shipped to them intended as second doses as first doses," said Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam.
She says the need for 2nd doses is far exceeding what Pennsylvania actually has and the department of health says providers have been doing this since January, which totals now 200,000 doses.
"That's roughly the entire Moderna allocation for the week," said Beam.
To remedy the issue, the Department of Health is telling providers to use any doses that were not scheduled for an appointment yet for those second doses and also is changing the timing of the second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Beam said, "All providers will be following CDC guidelines that set the minimum time between doses at 28 days and the maximum time at 42 days."
The DOH said it is trying to identify which providers or how many of them created this issue.
"We are not here to have blame placed anywhere and in fact, we want to make sure that instead all of us are focusing on the path forward," said the acting health secretary.
However, The DOH also clarified that one provider said it was the department of health guidance issued about two weeks ago that confused them into thinking all doses were supposed to be used. The DOH says it meant "first" doses.
Moving forward, there will be fewer 1st doses for people than anticipated - and a possible rescheduling for people who are getting their 2nd Moderna dose in the upcoming weeks. However, that shot will still be administered by the same provider.
Beam said, "There are roughly 30,000-60,000 appointments that could need to be rescheduled 1 to 2 weeks out. For first appointments, there could 30,000-55,000 first doses that providers that expected and anticipated that would not actually be delivered this week."
As of right now, this only impacts Moderna doses and not the COVID-19 Pfzier vaccine.