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As US vaccine demand falls, states look to new solutions

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Medical workers with Delta Health Center prepare to vaccinate people at a pop-up COVID-19 vaccination clinic in a rural Delta community on Apr 29, 2021 in Leland, Mississippi. (Photo: AFP/Getty Images/Spencer Platt) - 

 

 

America's COVID-19 immunisation campaign is stalling.

While vaccination programs are lagging badly in many countries - if they've begun at all - mass vaccine sites across the US are closing due to dwindling demand, leaving the authorities exploring new ways to reach people who haven't yet gotten a shot.

The national vaccination rate peaked around Apr 11, according to official data, and although 55 per cent of US adults now have had one or more doses, there's still a long way to go to achieve population immunity.

The people most eager to get their shots have, for the most part, already rolled up their sleeves and done so.

The challenge is reaching the rest.

In Texas, as in much of the country, vaccinations are in freefall. A huge federal site in Arlington, between Dallas and Fort Worth, shut its doors in mid-April because of insufficient numbers.

Two other federal sites, the NRG Stadium in Houston and Fair Park in Dallas, have ended their appointments system and now take walk-ups.

The NRG Stadium, seeking to ease the process, is now remaining open until nine o'clock in the evening rather than five, and vaccinating people in their cars.

Authorities are considering more targeted approaches to reach people who are geographically isolated or find it hard to reach vaccine sites.

Five mobile vaccination centres are now crisscrossing those areas of the county with the highest number of positive cases.

"Next week, we'll be increasing to 10 clinics," Ashlei Dawson, the official in charge of one of the sites, told AFP, as she oversaw the training of new recruits.

Dozens of supermarkets and pharmacies around the city are now advertising vaccinations. 

Among Republican voters, 29 per cent say they will never take the vaccine, compared to five per cent of Democrats and nine per cent of independents, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Friday promised a new initiative to help people get vaccines through their own doctors who, research shows, are often the most trusted messengers//CNA

 

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