ESCANABA — Health departments across Michigan are feeling the strain of keeping up with the public’s desire for COVID-19 vaccinations, but even in the Delta and Menominee counties supply isn’t meeting demand.

As of Tuesday, 6,275 doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been sent to Delta County and 1,300 doses had been sent to Menominee County. Public Health Delta & Menominee Counties, which serves as the two counties’ health department, said in a press release Monday the lower number of doses in Menominee was because the county did not have a hospital of its own. For that reason, some of the doses sent to Delta County were being administered to qualified Menominee County residents.

However, the 7,575 doses sent to the two counties does not indicate 7,575 people have been vaccinated. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require second doses to be effective, so, outside of the first shipment of doses sent out by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services in mid-December, all of the shipments are allocated, at least in part, for patients who have already received a first dose.

According to the state, 4,014 doses of the vaccine that were shipped to Delta County had been administered to first-dose patients as of Tuesday, with another 827 second-doses being administered. Menominee had seen 960 first doses and 138 second doses.

So far, only the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for distribution in the United States. A third vaccines developed by Johnson & Johnson is currently in late stage clinical trials that would require only a single dose. That vaccine is likely to be granted emergency approval from the FDA in the coming weeks.

Each week, health departments and healthcare providers across the state request doses from MDHHS based the amount they think they can administer in the following week. Hospitals and health departments are notified of their allotment of vaccine on Friday afternoons and the shipment of vaccine — which may not include the amount requested — typically arrives on Monday morning. Whatever is received must be at least 90 percent administered within seven days.

In Delta and Menominee counties, there is no shortage of people seeking vaccination. Calls for appointments became so frequent that PHDM teamed up with 211 to create a waitlist for eligible patients. However, the supply from the state couldn’t keep up with the demand and the waitlist was paused on Jan. 29. At the time, more than 4,000 Delta and Menominee County residents over the age of 65 were on the list.

As of Wednesday, the waitlist was still on hold, but PHDM has assured those on the list will be contacted to schedule an appointment as vaccine becomes available and additional clinics are scheduled. After those on the waitlist have been served, residents of both counties that are eligible to receive the vaccine will have the ability to schedule their own COVID-19 vaccination appointments online. A link to online scheduling will be posted at www.phdm.org once it becomes available.

At this time, only individuals 65 years of age and older, residents of long-term care facilities, health care workers, and some critical infrastructure workers are being vaccinated, per guidelines issued by the state. Critical infrastructure workers being vaccinated at this stage include first responders, corrections staff, daycare personnel, pre-K through 12 school staff and those who work in child protective services.