Key Updates from the Health Center COVID-19 Survey (Week #49): The Pace of COVID-19 Vaccine Administration is Rapidly Increasing at Community Health Centers

During the week of March 11th, 2021, a year after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared, data reported from the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA’s) weekly Health Center COVID-19 Survey indicate that the number of community health center patients tested for the COVID-19 virus the week of March 5th, 2021 (131,529) was down by about 210,000 from its peak of 341,149 in December 2020. Similarly, the number of health center patients with confirmed infection (10,311) that week was nearly 45,000 less than its peak recorded level (55,163) as of January 8th. The number of staff members (234) who tested positive for the virus this week was at its lowest recorded level over the 11 months of survey data. HRSA has reported nine weeks of data on the number of community health center staff members and patients who have initiated and completed COVID-19 vaccination, beginning the week ending January 8th through the week ending March 5th. The number of patients who initiated their COVID-19 immunization series in the week ending March 5th (370,079) was seven times the number who initiated their COVID-19 immunization series in the first week of reporting (52,978). Over this nine-week time period, nearly 158,000 staff members and more than 806,000 patients had completed their COVID-19 vaccine series. Still, while the Biden Administration started allocating vaccine supplies directly to selected community health centers in February, nearly half (45 percent) of responding health centers reported that vaccine deployment was challenged by supply constraints this current reporting period. The data note is available here.