US Health Workers Offer Vaccine Doses To Motorists Stranded In Traffic

So, they hopped out of their vehicles and started approaching the cars near them to see if anyone wanted the shots whilst the bad weather crippled the flow of traffic on Tuesday.

They quickly identified six people who wanted the jabs, which they said were on the verge of becoming unusable.

The vaccine doses were intended for people in the town of Grants Pass, but according to the health department, 'the snow meant those doses wouldn't make it to them before they expired'.

Once opened, the doses would have expired six hours later, which is why they decided that they'd have to set up an 'impromptu vaccine clinic'.

So - as the health department said on Facebook - 'not wanting to waste any doses, dedicated JCPH staff members began walking from car to car, offering stranded motorists a chance at receiving the vaccine.'

Photos shared on Facebook show the volunteers with their arms rolled up, ready for the vaccine to be administered, all whilst standing by the side of a snow-covered road.

One person who received the vaccine was an employee of the local sheriff's office, who was actually on his way to receive a dose of the vaccine at the time.

They were hamstrung by the bad weather, but - by a remarkable quirk of coincidence - managed to get their inoculation all the same.

Josephine County Public Health Director Mike Weber later joked that it was 'one of the coolest operations [he'd] been part of'.

At the minute, the USA is doling out Covid-19 vaccines only to the elderly, people with serious underlying health conditions, and those working on the frontline of healthcare.

It is hoped that more people will start to receive their vaccines by the spring, once the most vulnerable and at risk of contracting the virus have received theirs.

So far, 25.6 million people in the US have contracted the virus, with more than 430,000 people dead.

President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that supply of vaccines to states where it had been a problem is to be ramped up over the next three weeks.

He expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate all 300 million Americans by the late summer or early autumn.