This was broken up into three tiers with emergency medical services (EMS), hospitals, including the general medical board, the emergency department, the intensive care unit and skilled nursing facilities in tier one.

Tier two would include state psychiatric hospitals, homes for the aged, adult foster care centers and home health care workers.

The final tier consists of additional workers with direct patient conduct who conduct high contact or high-risk procedures, typically which will generate aerosols, out-patient urgent care or ambulatory care workers and those who have indirect contact but hold specialized skills critical to the function of the system, including lab and pharmacy workers.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services prioritization guidance states the final group in the first phase of vaccination will include those at risk for severe COVID-19 illness due to underlying medical conditions and those above the age of 65. Phase two will consist of a mass vaccination campaign for all individuals 16 years or older.

As vaccines begin to come in, Vail said the health department originally thought Sparrow would be able to take care of EMS workers but that may fall on the department as the hospital is focused on the administration to their own staff.  

“Everybody got less vaccines than they were expecting,” Vail said.

According to the MDHHS Vaccine Dashboard, 26,325 doses of the vaccine have been distributed to hospitals across the state and 244 doses have been administered since Monday. 

Currently, 297 Michigan provider sites are enrolled in the vaccination program, four of which are in Ingham County.