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Vaccination rate will remain low without more vaccines, says SNHD

Posted at 10:29 PM, Jan 27, 2021
and last updated 2021-01-28 09:06:41-05

LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Nevada needs more vaccine doses.

While this is an ongoing national problem, the Southern Nevada Health District made it crystal clear on Wednesday afternoon that it has the capacity to vaccinate thousands of more people, but without extra doses, the number of administered vaccines will remain low.

So far more than 107,000 vaccines have been administered by SNHD and its partners.

RELATED: CDC: Nevada ranks worst state for vaccines administered per 100K

"We estimate that we have between 95 and 105 thousand vaccine doses that we could administer through our sites here in the county," said SNHD Acting Chief Health Officer Dr. Fermin Leguen.

The problem, he says, is that more vaccines are needed.

Health leaders say they are receiving between 22,000 and 25,000 but they have the capacity for much more.

“With the capacity, we have right now, we can probably do about 80,000 per week," said SNHD Director of Clinical Services Joann Rupiper.

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"Our goal is about 100,000 per week," she said."Now, we have to consider the second dose in there, but I’m pretty confident that we can do 50,000 per week."

This is particularly important now that the U.K. strain (B-117) has been identified in Nevada.

"[The U.K. strain] is considered to be more aggressive in terms of ability to disseminate and spread the disease among people," said Dr. Leguen, "but is not considered to be more lethal."

Those looking for a way to get a second dose advised by officials to return to the vaccination site where they got the first one.

Anyone who received their first dose at Cashman Center or at SNHD will need to go to the Las Vegas Convention Center to finish the vaccine process.