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

On September 11, 2023, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) de-authorized the bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines in anticipation of the commercialization of the COVID-19 vaccines. The table below shows the total number of U.S. Government supplied COVID-19 vaccine doses distributed and administered, per IHS Area, for facilities that chose to receive vaccine through the IHS jurisdiction since COVID-19 vaccines became available in December 2020. The data includes COVID-19 vaccinations administered to all ages and specialty groups authorized for emergency use or fully licensed by the FDA prior to commercialized COVID-19 vaccine authorization.

Total Doses Distributed

Area	Total Doses Distributed	Total Doses Administered**
Albuquerque	302,540	204,773
Bemidji	347,300	187,577
Billings	206,500	90,612
California	521,870	237,272
Great Plains	435,150	190,506
Nashville	219,190	117,446
Navajo	726,540	439,133
Oklahoma City	907,725	535,824
Phoenix	502,970	274,125
Portland	228,900	115,509
Tucson	22,440	14,995
Grand Total	4,421,125	2,407,772

*Distributed Data Source: IHS National Supply Service Center, includes total doses ordered and delivered by September 26, 2023 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 Sep 26, 2023.

IHS Area	Tested	Positive	Negative	Cumulative percent positive	7-day rolling average positivity
Alaska	1,146,303	58,379	936,940	5.9%	0.0%
Albuquerque	191,461	17,884	146,055	10.9%	11.1%
Bemidji	339,970	35,693	302,707	10.5%	7.2%
Billings	165,121	14,586	145,369	9.1%	13.7%
California	214,450	24,342	179,240	12.0%	26.9%
Great Plains	345,500	36,212	301,636	10.7%	3.0%
Nashville	220,957	24,385	185,465	11.6%	20.7%
Navajo	668,192	96,643	484,277	16.6%	11.9%
Oklahoma	1,425,781	213,404	1,191,139	15.2%	11.2%
Phoenix	364,352	54,401	302,404	15.2%	8.3%
Portland	270,988	24,166	244,729	9.0%	8.0%
Tucson	92,379	10,532	81,591	11.4%	20.6%
TOTAL	5,445,454	610,627	4,501,552	11.9%	10.6%

IHS will discontinue posting COVID-19 testing data on September 28, 2023.