Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) announced they will extend eligibility for COVID-19 vaccinations to include people 65 or older, and additional groups of frontline workers starting February 8. These additional groups will add over 1 million people who are now eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine in Alabama. Two million people will be eligible to get the vaccine, while only around 100,000 doses are being distributed weekly.
The list of frontline critical workers includes first responders, corrections officers, food and agriculture workers, postal workers, grocery workers, public transit workers, judiciary, and educational personnel (teachers, support staff, community college, and higher education). Recently the Alabama Education Association sent a letter to State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris, asking the state to begin vaccinating education employees “as soon as possible.” 39 school workers in Alabama have died from COVID-19.
772,275 vaccines have been delivered to Alabama, and 42% of those have already been administered. 148,549 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 175,326 doses of the Moderna vaccine have been used.
Gov. Ivey stated, “We have all been frustrated that the supply of vaccine coming from the federal government hasn’t kept up with the demand. To be blunt, we simply haven’t gotten the vaccine that we’ve been promised, and this has created a major backlog of aggravation. Today’s announcement will ensure that as more vaccine is released, we will have a plan in place to get the vaccine in people’s arms more quickly.”
“Alabama is expanding its guidance despite the limited vaccine in order to accelerate the vaccine uptake in our state,” Dr. Harris commented. “I want to reiterate that any remaining vaccines that have not been administered are either someone’s first dose and they are waiting on their appointment or they are waiting on their second dose. Any vaccine currently in the state has someone’s name on it.”
To schedule an appointment for the free COVID-19 vaccination at a county health department, individuals may call the ADPH COVID-19 Vaccine Scheduling Hotline at 1-855-566-5333. The vaccine providers can be found within the Alabama COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Dashboard at arcg.is/OrCey.
The Vaccine Allocation Plan is available at www.alabamapublichealth.gov/covid19vaccine/assets/adph-covid19-vaccination-allocation-plan.pdf.
The ADPH dashboard can be viewed here.
