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Vaccine doses vary by county in U.P.

ESCANABA — Each week, health departments and healthcare providers across the state request vaccine doses from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, but just because a health department has requested a certain amount doesn’t mean those doses are being delivered. Even in the U.P., there are major differences between counties in how many doses are being received.

The four hardest-hit counties for COVID-19 infections in the Upper Peninsula are, in order, Marquette, Delta, Dickinson, and Houghton, which are the same four counties that lead in vaccine distribution according to the state’s vaccine dashboard. However, the vaccine is not being distributed solely on the number of cases, as the order differs slightly with Marquette receiving 72,725 doses, Houghton receiving 12,500 doses, Dickinson County receiving 7,850 doses, and Delta receiving 7,650 doses based on information released by the state Tuesday.

Public Health Delta Menominee Counties has repeatedly stated it does not know the exact formula the state is using to determine how much of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to send to each health department, hospital, and tribal health center that requests vaccines. Still, it appears the state is at least partially looking at case rates when looking at healthcare providers’ weekly requests for vaccine.

But there are some discrepancies. Menominee County, which has the fifth highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the pensinula, comes in at 11th on the state’s vaccine distribution list, receiving only 1,600 doses since the start of vaccinations back in mid-December. Earlier this month, PHDM said the lower number of doses being sent to the county was largely due to the county not having a hospital of its own. To offset the difference, some of the doses initially allocated to Delta County were being distributed to qualified Menominee County residents.

After Delta County, Chippewa County comes in fifth for vaccine distribution, with 7,575 vaccine doses received. The county is unique in that its probable cases — those cases of individuals who have symptoms consistent with COVID-19 and where there is a link to a confirmed case but don’t have a positive test or patients who have a link to a confirmed case and test positive for the COVID-19 antibody — far outweigh the number of confirmed cases. Based on the county’s probable cases alone, it falls squarely as the peninsula’s sixth hardest-hit county with 1,011 probable cases as of Wednesday. It falls to eighth based on confirmed cases, with 707.

Schoolcraft County comes in at sixth for vaccine distribution, receiving 4,500 doses despite only having 229 confirmed and 28 probable cases. However, a significant block of vaccine doses were passed through the LMAS Health District, which serves Luce, Alger, Mackinac and Schoolcraft Counties. With the exception of Baraga County, which has received the ninth highest number of vaccine doses, all of the counties ranked sixth through 10th for vaccine distribution are within the LMAS Health District.

Schoolcraft County is also home to Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital, which may have impacted its ranking.

The three remaining counties on the state’s vaccine distribution list are Gogebic, with 1,500 doses; Ontonagon, with 1,200 doses, and Iron with 1,000 doses. All of these health counties are linked to health departments higher on the list. Iron County shares a health department with Dickinson. Gogebic and Ontonagon are part of the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department with Baraga. Also in the Western Upper Peninsula Health Department is Keweenaw County, which is not listed on the state’s dashboard but shares an office with Houghton County in Hancock.

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