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D.C. officials are concerned that they will be unable to vaccinate the city’s health care workforce once a coronavirus vaccine is available, according to the city鈥檚 health director.

More than 80,000 health care workers are employed in the District, but the federal government plans to allocate the city just 8,000 doses as part of the first phase of distribution. Those estimates could change though.

鈥淲e have requested that they reconsider and provide the District a pro rata share based on our workforce, given our porous borders,鈥� D.C. Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt said during a press conference on Nov. 30.

A vaccine may be distributed as early as December because promising research results were filed in November.

Moderna reported that its vaccine was. Pfizer reported that its vaccine and that it would seek regulatory approval on Nov. 20. And AstraZeneca reported three days later that its vaccine was and easy to transport, though its study in the weeks since, as some test groups were mistakenly given incorrect doses.

Both Pfizer and Moderna on Nov. 20 and Nov. 30, respectively. The Food and Drug Administration will review the research results and an advisory committee will then vote on whether to approve each vaccine. If both vaccines are approved, 20 million people could be vaccinated by the end of the year

States have already begun working on how they would distribute a coronavirus vaccine. Each state had to to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in October. D.C. officials recently public.

D.C. health officials believe the city has sufficient storage for the vaccine, which may have to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures. But the city will only get to vaccinate those eligible in the first half of phase one; there are four phases. That is because the allocation is based on how many health care workers are District residents, even though many workers enter the city from Maryland and Virginia.

鈥淲e don鈥檛 quibble about testing residents from Maryland or Virginia who work here, because we can just put more money into that,鈥� Nesbitt said in October. 鈥淏ut I can鈥檛 put more money into buying more vaccines. It鈥檚 a controlled supply chain, so it鈥檚 not a budgetary issue, it is strictly a resource allocation issue.鈥�

More than 21,000 residents for the virus, and 680 people have died from COVID-19. Nearly 160 COVID-19 patients are, 43 of whom are in the intensive care unit. District officials believe those numbers will get worse in a few weeks, reflecting the reality that many people traveled and gathered for the Thanksgiving holiday, even though health officials advised against it.

鈥淲e expect that we鈥檙e going to have more cases,鈥� D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser said during a press conference on Nov. 30. 鈥淲e have a very robust testing program, which we feel strongly will help us identify and isolate people who have been infected by covid.鈥�

The spikes in coronavirus numbers could come at a time when health officials are distributing the first doses of a vaccine. While D.C. health officials are concerned that they might not receive enough vaccines to vaccinate all health care workers regardless of their residency, they are perhaps more concerned that vaccine acceptance is low.

People mistrust a coronavirus vaccine because of how rapidly the manufacturers have developed the vaccines, and because of the Trump administration鈥檚 interference at the FDA.

People of color are especially suspicious of a vaccine because of reports of Black people being used for research experiments in the past, such as in the case of the when men were unknowingly infected with syphilis and then weren鈥檛 treated for it.

The suspicion is particularly worrisome because Ward 7 and Ward 8, which have the highest populations of African Americans in the city, have been particularly hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.

But Castina Watson, a Shaw resident who is Black, plans to take a vaccine as soon as she can. She lost her mother to COVID-19 earlier this year and can鈥檛 imagine not doing her part to protect other people from the illness.

鈥淪eeing this thing up close and what it does to people, not only people who pass away but people like me who are just left here to deal with the ashes, anything that I can do to try to eradicate it from the planet, I鈥檓 totally interested in doing,鈥� Watson said.