Nebraska's COVID-19 vaccine efforts are getting a shot in the arm.
Angie Ling, incident commander for the Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that state officials have been told they will get a 16% boost in vaccine supply over the next several weeks.
On Thursday, Ling said the state would receive 3,700 more doses of the Moderna vaccine next week. On Friday, she said that for future weeks, she's not sure if the state will get more Moderna vaccine, more Pfizer vaccine or both.
The announcement comes as the state is poised to move fully into Phase 1B of its vaccine plan next week, and as most restrictions in place to prevent spread of the coronavirus are being eased.
The state's new directed health measure, which is tied to COVID-19 hospitalizations falling below 10% of overall capacity, will allow all indoor venues to operate at 100% capacity, including gymnasiums.
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Lancaster County's rules, which limit occupancy in indoor spaces to 50% of capacity, remain in place through Feb. 21.
As vaccination efforts ramp up, the number of new coronavirus cases and the positivity rate on statewide tests continue to trend down.
All health districts in the state, except those in Lancaster and Douglas counties, are working on vaccinating people 65 and older.
"We expect both these health districts to be in Phase 1B next week," Gov. Pete Ricketts said.
Douglas County has already scheduled vaccination clinics next week for people 80 and older. The Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Department said it will initially focus on people 85 and older. It did not commit to a start date, but said it might be able to start those vaccinations by the end of next week.
On Thursday, the state debuted its vaccine registration site, , and as of Friday afternoon, more than 68,000 people had signed up.
Lori Snyder, chief information officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, said the website was processing about 2,000 registrations every 10 minutes and "didn't have any hiccups" that she was aware of.
Snyder said the Department of Health and Human Services also fielded about 700 calls on its vaccine hotline Thursday.
People are encouraged to get help from friends or family to sign up online if they don't have internet access. An alternative is to call the hotline at 531-249-1873 or 833-998-2275. Snyder said people also can call their local health department, but that should be a last resort.
A Spanish version of the website will not be available for at least a couple of weeks, but Snyder said there is at least one Spanish-speaking employee available on the hotline at all times.
She reiterated that people who registered through a local health department website do not need to register again with the state, except for those who are 18-64 with certain health conditions.
Snyder also stressed that the signup process is not a "first in, first out" process, so there is no urgency to get signed up.
People will be scheduled for appointments based on where they fall in the priority designations and will get notifications about those appointments as well as reminders to schedule their second shots.
When the state moves into vaccinating the general public, those appointments will be made on a random basis, Snyder said.
The additional doses the state will be getting should help speed up the process of vaccinating people in Phase 1B, Ricketts said. In addition to the 16% boost in vaccine allocation, Nebraska also will receive some vaccines back that were over-allocated to the federal pharmacy program that provided vaccinations for many of the state's long-term care centers.
Ling said CVS has said it expects to return about 5,850 doses. She said she expects to get numbers from Walgreens and Community Pharmacy in Gretna early next week.
She said the state declined an offer from the federal government to set up a vaccination site because it would not mean any additional doses. The state feels it has plenty of vaccination locations already arranged, she said.
Ricketts said the additional vaccine doses will continue to be allocated based on population. Lancaster County has been receiving 3,900 doses a week, or about 16.5% of the state's total allocation.
The governor said 99% of the state's long-term care center residents have received at least one dose of vaccine.
Most health care workers who wanted to get the vaccine have been able to. Lancaster County on Friday hosted a second mass vaccination clinic at Pinnacle Bank Arena to give shots to 2,400 behavioral health providers, clinical lab staff and some other health workers who have not yet received the vaccine.
The department also has allocated enough doses to Bryan Health for it to vaccinate as many as 500 students in its College of Health Sciences who have clinical rotations that require them to go onto patient floors.
As of Friday, the state said more than 39,000 people have been fully vaccinated with two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. That's about 2.6% of the population that's eligible for the vaccine.
As part of new directed health measures that are scheduled to go into effect Saturday, people who have been fully vaccinated will not be required to quarantine if they are exposed to someone with COVID-19.
Instead, they will be allowed to self-monitor for symptoms for 14 days, but will be required to wear a mask when in public. That same guidance will also apply to people who have had COVID-19 in the past 90 days and recovered.
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