More than 2,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been wasted in Tennessee’s most populous county since the beginning of this month, health officials confirmed this week.
The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed the thousands of doses wasted as part of an investigation launched last week. The study followed reports that more than 1,000 vaccine doses could expire before they could be administered in Shelby County, including Memphis.
The state health department found that the Shelby County health department wasted more than 2,400 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on seven separate “incidents” dating back to Feb. 3, the department confirmed in a statement Tuesday.
One of the incidents, which resulted in hundreds of vaccines being expired, was due to winter storms that hit the state earlier this month that delayed vaccinations.
The health department also confirmed that Shelby County health officials had about 51,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine in their inventory, nearly 30,000 doses more than what they would have had to stockpile to plan the multi-week distribution.
The excess doses are not expected to expire until early next month, Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey confirmed at a news conference on Tuesday.
“It is important that we do this right for the people of Shelby County and for the state as a whole as we work to ensure equitable and efficient distribution of this life-saving vaccine to Tennesseans in all communities, especially the most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities” Piercey said in Tuesday’s statement.
As a result of the investigation, Shelby County health officials will no longer be allowed to distribute COVID-19 vaccines. Instead, Memphis city officials, hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and other partners will distribute the vaccinations.
The state investigation has also resulted in layoffs.
State health officials found that Shelby County Health Department employees did not have direct access to the vaccine supply. Only one pharmacist, who is not a Shelby County employee and was instead hired on a contract basis, had direct access to the vaccines.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris (D) announced on Tuesday that the city fired the health department location manager who was responsible for overseeing the relationship with the contract pharmacist. The province also asked for the pharmacist to be removed from the administration of the vaccines.
Tennessee health officials have administered at least 767,826 first doses of COVID-19 vaccine, about 11.2 percent of the state’s population, according to a dashboard from The Washington Post.