As COVID vaccinations increase throughout Alabama, the state is getting closer and closer to offering the vaccine to any adult who wants it.
Alabama health official Dr. Scott Harris said the state would offer COVID-19 vaccines to everyone aged 16 and over before the national goal set by President Joe Biden on May 1, possibly well before.
“The president asked all states to fully open eligibility by May 1,” said Harris. “Certainly, Alabama will do that on May 1, but it could be a lot sooner, depending on how much absorption we see.”
Alabama has administered more than 1.3 million doses of the COVID vaccine in the state, with 866,000 people (more than 22% of the total adult population) receiving at least one dose and more than half a million who are fully vaccinated.
On March 22, the state is expanding vaccine eligibility for people aged 55 and over, additional categories of essential workers, including workers in restaurants and bank tellers, and people with health problems, including obesity, cancer, kidney disease and smoking.
“We think this will more than double the number of qualified people in our state,” said Harris. “Probably between half and two-thirds of all adults in the state will be covered at that point.”
Harris said the state could open it up to all adults in the coming weeks, as Mississippi and Alaska have already done, and other states have announced that they will.
“I think clearly the most important [factor] what is our available supply? Harris said. “If everyone is prioritized, then essentially nobody is prioritized, if you don’t have enough vaccine for everyone.
“And it becomes, you know, a crazy race to beat everyone else to the front of the line.”
There are no additional risk groups identified in the Alabama vaccine allocation plan. The next phase identified in the plan includes all adults.
“We will, from Monday, open the eligibility for all risk groups that we have stratified,” said Harris. “And if there is a lot of demand and the lines are, you know, kilometers long and there are no doses on the shelf, it would not make sense to expand it for everyone yet.
“But when we see that there is no demand, we will expand it.”
Alabama National Guard mobile vaccine clinics are due to open next week on a six-week rotation in 24 rural counties. Harris said there is a “very good chance” that the vaccine’s eligibility could be expanded before the first six-week rotation ends.
Harris said the state continues to see small increases in the number of doses it receives, up to about 110,000 to 120,000 first doses per week, with separate shipments to cover second dose consultations for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which require two doses.
Alabama has given just over 20,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s unique vaccine, but Harris said the production of this recently approved vaccine is still being accelerated and the state does not expect to receive large quantities of that vaccine until next month.
Alabama released new county-level vaccination data this week, showing many counties, including many in the Black Belt and other rural areas, reporting that more than 25% of its population has already received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“This is not an accident,” said Harris. “This is a very deliberate strategy on our part to try to reach the most vulnerable people.”