Coronavirus (COVID-19)

The Indian Health Service continues to work closely with our tribal and urban Indian organization partners and state and local public health officials to coordinate a comprehensive public health response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected American Indian and Alaska Native populations across the country. American Indians and Alaska Natives have infection rates over 3.5 times higher Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov  than non-Hispanic whites, are over four times Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov  more likely to be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19, and have higher rates Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov  of mortality at younger ages than non-Hispanic whites. This has highlighted the need for comprehensive, culturally appropriate personal and public health services that are available and accessible to all American Indian and Alaska Native people.

A Historic Investment

The IHS has received a historic investment of more than $9 billion [PDF] to provide resources for IHS, tribal, and urban Indian health programs to address long-standing health inequities experienced by American Indians and Alaska Natives by ensuring a comprehensive public health response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. We have worked closely with tribes and urban Indian organizations throughout this pandemic to get resources out to facilities as quickly as possible.

Increasing Availability and Access to Vaccination Sites

IHS continues to address barriers to COVID-19 vaccination in American Indian and Alaska Native communities by increasing availability to convenient and accessible vaccination sites; increasing clinical and community-based workforce for outreach, education, and vaccination; and accelerating COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration. Across the Indian health system, we have administered well over one million vaccine doses, increased drive-through testing sites, and provided next-generation at home tests and rapid tests.

Achievements and Improvements

It has been more than a year now that IHS and our dedicated workforce have been responding to COVID-19. Over the past year, IHS has worked to ensure the safety of our IHS patients and staff, as well as tribal community members. We have made some considerable achievements such as developing a COVID-19 data surveillance system and partnering with the Navajo Nation and other local organizations on a project to support the installation of 59 transitional water points on the Navajo Nation. These efforts have increased water access for over 9,600 homes without piped water.

The pandemic has highlighted challenges and risks to our current health information technology system and has reinforced IHS’ commitment to the modernization of our health IT infrastructure. Despite these challenges, we have successfully expanded our use of technology to provide telehealth services during COVID-19.The funding for electronic health record modernization provided by Congress will allow us to proceed with the foundational steps in this important multi-year effort.

Importance of Partnerships

We look forward to continuing our work with tribal, urban Indian organization, and federal partners across the country. The IHS remains committed to working closely with our stakeholders and understands the importance of everyone coming together during this difficult time.

For the latest general information about COVID-19, we encourage everyone to periodically review CDC’s COVID-19 webpage Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov . Information on the number of COVID-19 vaccines administered across the IHS can be found on the CDC COVID Data Tracker Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov  in the Federal Entities section.

COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration by IHS Area

As of October 11, 2021, the IHS is distributing all three COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized or approved in the U.S, including Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson. The table below shows the total number of vaccine doses distributed and administered to date, per IHS Area, for facilities that chose to receive vaccine through the IHS jurisdiction. The data includes COVID-19 vaccinations administered to all ages and specialty groups authorized for emergency use or fully licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The IHS administration rate is 79 percent. The Albuquerque Area has a greater than 100 percent administration rate, which may be due to vaccine overfill in the vials for both Pfizer and Moderna products.The IHS jurisdiction is administering all available full doses in accordance with FDA guidance.

Area	Total Doses Distributed*	Total Doses Administered**
Albuquerque	141,265	142,041
Bemidji	180,545	134,714
Billings	85,365	56,971
California	254,605	172,305
Great Plains	158,230	112,019
Nashville	113,185	82,112
Navajo	305,025	272,352
Oklahoma City	541,460	427,569
Phoenix	219,440	178,910
Portland	114,065	84,469
Tucson	13,790	11,004
Grand Total	2,126,975	1,674,466

*Distributed Data Source: IHS National Supply Service Center, includes total doses ordered and delivered by October 8, 2021, to facilities that chose the IHS jurisdiction for vaccine distribution.

**Administered Data Source: Data is reported from the Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS) and IHS Central Aggregator Service (CAS). Data may be different than data on the CDC COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker due to lags and ongoing quality review of data, including resolving data errors.

Note:The COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration by IHS Area data is only reflective of facilities that chose the IHS jurisdiction for vaccine distribution. Alaska Area data is not reported as all tribes chose to receive COVID-19 vaccine from the State of Alaska. The Tucson Area data only includes one tribe that chose the IHS jurisdiction for vaccine distribution.

COVID-19 Cases by IHS Area

Data are reported from IHS, tribal, and urban Indian organization facilities, though reporting by tribal and urban programs is voluntary. Data reflect cases reported to the IHS through 11:59 pm on October 17, 2021.

IHS Area	Tested	Positive	Negative	Cumulative percent positive	7-day rolling average positivity
Alaska	789,429	21,889	665,677	3.2%	11.2%
Albuquerque	115,506	9,058	85,447	9.6%	5.0%
Bemidji	216,790	15,760	199,988	7.3%	10.9%
Billings	124,041	9,096	111,256	7.6%	12.1%
California	125,143	12,542	107,567	10.4%	10.8%
Great Plains	181,993	16,535	164,836	9.1%	9.0%
Nashville	115,262	9,513	102,799	8.5%	5.3%
Navajo	330,494	37,708	239,819	13.6%	13.6%
Oklahoma City	717,825	88,714	625,012	12.4%	9.0%
Phoenix	218,201	27,503	189,597	12.7%	12.4%
Portland	166,016	11,648	153,708	7.0%	8.6%
Tucson	40,875	3,391	37,371	8.3%	12.6%
TOTAL	3,141,575	263,357	2,683,077	8.9%	10.2%

COVID-19 testing data is updated on Mondays and Thursdays.