In the race of states to administer Covid-19 vaccines to residents, Alabama has consistently lagged behind.
Alabama has administered 10,013 doses per 100,000 people as of Tuesday, the lowest percentage in the states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, it was among the highest rates in the US for positive coronavirus tests in the past month at 29.1%, based on data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Several factors come into play, health officials and specialists say. Alabama’s public health system has been exhausted from years of inadequate funding, leaving some counties with few or no health departments at all. Administrative and technological problems, including inadequate appointment scheduling and outdated software, have hindered the effort.
Alabama’s vaccine appointment telephone hotline initially fell short, with insufficient lines to meet demand, said Dr. Karen Landers, a district physician for the Alabama Department of Public Health. Last week, an appointment website went live. Last month, a reservation issue resulted in people showing up for scheduled appointments at a vaccination event in the Birmingham area, only to find that it had been incorrectly listed and no one was there.
Much of Alabama’s population lives in rural areas with limited health services. According to the University of North Carolina’s Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services, seven rural hospitals in the state have closed since 2009, part of a wider wave of closures driven by population loss and poverty among patient populations.