LAS VEGAS (AP) — Nevada has administered more than 137,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
But state coronavirus task force chief Caleb Cage said Friday that Nevada's vaccine allocation from the federal government has been "low, slow and weekly" and "is not enough to meet our needs or our capacity."
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“Many vaccination sites are having to scale down because of the limited allocation we are set to receive next week," said Candice McDaniel with the Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health.
State leaders say Cashman Center is one of the locations that has rolled back operations and will in fact stay closed for the weekend.
The move will allow the low vaccine supply to meet the obligations and appointments already on the books at smaller vaccine locations around Clark County.
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"This is a very complex, large scale operation that is all driven by allocation of the vaccine so they can scale up or they can scale down based on the number of doses they have available to the public," explained Cage in a call with media representatives Friday.
Cage said the health district in Southern Nevada, which includes Las Vegas and where three-quarters of the state's population lives, has the capacity to administer about 92,000 doses a week. But the entire state is only getting about 36,000 doses a week.
He says Nevada is doing everything it can to press for more doses.
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"We are certainly raising the issue with our federal partners and our federal delegation through the governor's office and every avenue that we possibly can to make sure the situation is rectified," said Cage.
Cage says it's unclear why Nevada is receiving such a low share of the vaccine when compared to the rest of the states.
Cage adds the low supplies seem to be plaguing the rest of the FEMA Region 9, which includes Nevada, California, Arizona, and Hawaii.
13 Action News and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
