ATLANTA, Nov. 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will distribute the country's remaining 10.3 million doses of flu vaccine to state health departments.
Under the plan outlined Wednesday, states and territories will receive 100 percent of any orders they had originally placed under federal, state, and multi-state contracts.
Overall, this accounts for 3.1 million doses of vaccine.
The distribution plan for the balance of 7.2 million doses takes into account the number of high-priority individuals in the state, the number of doses the state has already received and finally, the state's unmet needs.
In coming weeks, another 1.2 million doses of pediatric vaccine will be allocated to states using the same approach.
Vaccine manufacturer Aventis Pasteur had already shipped 33 million of its expected total 58 million vaccine doses prior to the Oct. 5 closure of Chiron Corp.'s vaccine plant in England.
The CDC said it is also working with the Food and Drug Administration on the possibility of obtaining several million doses of foreign-produced influenza vaccine.
