Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Nevada Moderna vaccination doses arrive after weather delay

COVID-19 Second Dose Clinic at Convention Center

Christopher DeVargas

A healthcare worker for the Southern Nevada Health Department draws up a syringe with a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Monday Feb. 1, 2021.

Updated Monday, Feb. 22, 2021 | 1:45 p.m.

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak says shipments of 46,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine that were delayed because of weather have now started arriving in the state.

Sisolak made the announcement on Twitter Monday.

Candice McDaniel, the health bureau chief of Nevada’s Bureau of Child, Family and Community Wellness, said officials would be working overtime this week to administer the delayed Moderna doses and this week's regularly scheduled shipment.

Officials in southern Nevada, which includes Las Vegas and three-quarters of the state's population, rescheduled appointments for people waiting on a second dose of the Moderna vaccine for this week.

The governor revealed on Twitter that state officials had been considering an offer to use private airplanes to retrieve the doses, which were delayed amid winter storms across the U.S. last week. Sisolak says the state ultimately did not need to use the private aircraft.

State health officials reported 173 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths related to the disease Monday.

The state has seen 291,145 known cases of coronavirus and 4,882 deaths since the pandemic began.

The number of infections is thought to be far higher than reported because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected with the virus without feeling sick.