When Louisiana opened eligibility for coronavirus vaccines to anyone over the age of 16 as of Monday, March 29, it joined a small but growing number of states where anyone who wants an injection you can get it.
Alaska was the first state to be opened to anyone over 16 on March 9, followed by Mississippi a week later.
This week kicked off a vaccine hunting season in many other states, well ahead of the May 1 deadline imposed by the Biden government, when the president said that everyone over 16 will be eligible.
Louisiana is opening eligibility for the vaccine to all residents aged 16 and over next week as the state receives a record dose shipment, Governor Jo…
West Virginia opened eligibility on Monday and Utah on Wednesday. In Arizona, residents of certain state-administered vaccination sites in some counties can also receive the vaccine starting on Wednesday.
Other states have announced opening dates next week. Georgia, Texas and Indiana announced on Tuesday that vaccination would be available for all authorized ages starting Thursday for Georgia residents, Monday for Texas residents and March 31 for Indiana residents. North Dakota and Ohio will make the vaccine available to anyone from March 29.
Several other states have announced that they will open in April on the following dates:
April 1: Montana
April 5: Tennessee, Michigan, Connecticut, Nevada, Idaho
April 9: Missouri
April 12: Illinois
April 19: Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island
April 27: Maryland
Mid-April: New Mexico
On a sunny and stormy Monday in New Orleans, Tonya Freeman Brown donned a neon yellow vest and started knocking on the doors of the Hoffman Triangl …
But many other states still have restrictions based on age, occupation and medical conditions. In terms of age, New York has recently expanded to anyone over 50, along with Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Wyoming. The age limit is 65 or older in California, Alabama, North Carolina and more than a dozen other states.
In all states, people of all ages can qualify if they have certain medical conditions or jobs, although qualifications vary by state.
In Arkansas, people with some of the medical conditions flagged by the Centers for Disease Control as high risk may receive the vaccine, but not all; smokers and people with Down syndrome are not included. In Florida, people of any age can get the vaccine with a doctor’s certificate.
Louisiana has reached another milestone in the ongoing coronavirus pandemic: more than 10,000 people are now suspected of dying from COVID-19.
Since the beginning of the implantation, the vaccine’s eligibility has been a patchwork, with a different plan for each state. Whether a person is vaccinated depends a lot on where they live.
Louisiana, a state with high rates of comorbidities like diabetes, obesity and cancer, made almost everyone in the state eligible after expanding on March 9 for people with a range of medical conditions, including a body mass index above 25. This condition by alone qualified almost three quarters of the state.
While states are opening eligibility with the hope that more people will apply for vaccination, the initial expansions may be a sign that overall demand is lower in these states, said Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University.
“I think it is an indication that the vaccination burn rate is dropping slightly,” said Hassig.
But smaller states are also easier with the logistics of inoculating people and smaller elderly populations than larger states.
“With a population the size of Texas or California, they have a lot more people in those older age groups because their populations are five or ten times larger than ours,” said Hassig.
The eligibility of the COVID-19 vaccine is expanding again in Louisiana.
Twenty-three percent of people in Louisiana received at least one dose and 14% are fully vaccinated, compared to the national average of 25% of vaccinations started and 14% fully vaccinated.
Emily Woodruff covers public health for The Times-Picayune | New Orleans Advocate as a member of Report For America.