LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Nearly 47,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines were administered across Nebraska last week as officials continue to speed up distribution of the vaccines.
State officials said 46,806 doses of the vaccine were administered last week, up from 31,036 doses administered the previous week.
The state estimates that 3.25% of Nebraska's population has now received both required doses of the vaccine. And Nebraska said it has administered 184,045 of the 300,400 doses that have been allocated to it. Most of those vaccines have gone to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities, but in some parts of the state people 65 and older and other groups are being vaccinated.
In central Nebraska, a group of teachers were vaccinated in Grand Island last week because the Central District Health Department had about 400 doses of the vaccine leftover after holding two drive-through clinics for older residents, and the medicine had to be used quickly because it had already been thawed.
Teachers aren't scheduled to get the vaccine until after older Nebraskans, but they were available quickly to use up the thawed doses.
"It's an issue of supply and demand. We need to figure out how to get people there when we have doses," said Teresa Anderson, director of the Grand Island-based health department. "It's strictly because we had to move vaccine. So we did it."