Editor's note: This story was originally published by Colorado Newsline. Read the original story here.
WASHINGTON — States will see another increase in the COVID-19 vaccine doses they receive, with the Biden administration announcing Tuesday that the federal government will distribute 11 million doses next week.
That’s an increase from 10.5 million doses this week, and 8.6 million during the week President Joe Biden took office last month. Those increases were attributed to boosted production by vaccine manufacturers.
The administration has not published a state-by-state breakdown on how many doses are distributed each week.
Colorado is expected to see an increase of doses delivered to the state of about 9,000 a week starting next week over at least three weeks, Gov. Jared Polis said during a news briefing Tuesday. As of Tuesday, about 560,000 Coloradans had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine.
Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, both Republicans, have questioned whether Iowa is receiving a fair share of doses under that formula, and wrote to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday, asking CDC officials to release the weekly formula for allocating vaccines to states.
The administration’s COVID-19 task force also announced that beginning next week, community health centers across the country will begin receiving vaccine doses directly. At least one center in each state will begin receiving COVID-19 shots, with the initial phase expected to include 250 centers nationally.
“For Colorado that doesn’t mean as much, because we’ve been using community health clinics from day one as one of our distribution partners,” such as Salud Family Health Centers, Clinica Colorado and Denver Health, Polis said during the briefing today. “But we welcome any additional supply of vaccines, and if the federal government now will begin sending some directly to community health clinics that will be wonderful.”
Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, the director of Biden’s COVID-19 health equity task force, said those centers provide care in many underserved areas, and using those facilities to boost vaccinations will help to improve equitable access to vaccines.
“The tools that we are deploying at the federal level are meant to aid state and local leaders, but are in no way a substitute for the important work that they must lead on the ground to address equity,” Nunez-Smith said.
Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a network of news outlets supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: [email protected]. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.
