NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee official says the state expects to start receiving 90,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines a week going forward.
Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey made the comments Tuesday, as the state continued to try to fend off one of the biggest surges in new coronavirus cases per capita in the country.
Piercey says 24,200 people in Tennessee have been vaccinated with their first dose as of Tuesday morning.
There were 1,785 new cases per 100,000 people in Tennessee over the past two weeks, which ranks first in the country for new cases per capita, according to Johns Hopkins researchers.
On Monday, WREG reported that Tennessee health officials want to have 200,000 people vaccinated by the end of the year.
Monday, health officials announced they had released their emergency stockpiles of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines putting a combined 10,000 doses into circulation. The state also learned it would be getting an unexpected shipment of 40,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Baptist Memorial said it has already vaccinated at least 2,200 members of its staff.
Health officials are forecasting 70 to 80 percent of the population will need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.
The state is currently giving frontline healthcare workers priority for the vaccine but said Monday that their distribution plans are constantly being re-evaluated.
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