Mississippi will become the second state to open the Covid-19 vaccination to all of its adult residents, after a call from President Biden for all states to do so by May 1.
Alaska opened its vaccination doors last week to anyone aged 16 and over who lives or works in the state. The Mississippi change takes effect on Tuesday.
“Take your photos, friends”, Governor Tate Reeves announced on Twitter. “And let’s get back to normal!”
The pace of vaccinations in the United States has steadily increased as production increased, from well under a million vaccines a day on January 20, when Biden took office, to about 2.4 million doses a day in average, according to a New York Times database.
Biden’s team made important decisions that accelerated the manufacture and distribution of vaccines, but now the country faces the challenge of putting all these vaccines in the arms. Mass vaccination sites across the country are opening or increasing their capacity, in part to respond to the influx of doses of the Johnson & Johnson single injection vaccine.
However, more challenges remain, including improving access in communities of color and convincing Americans to be cautious for a number of reasons that being vaccinated is safe and effective.
Although Mississippi lags behind most states in the portion of the population that has been vaccinated, it is doing better than all its neighbors except Louisiana, according to a New York Times tracker. On Sunday, about 20 percent of Mississippians received at least one injection and 11 percent were fully vaccinated.
The state had already opened up eligibility more than most states, to cover everyone aged 50 and over. Governor Reeves urged older residents to make appointments as soon as possible.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said her state will lift eligibility restrictions by April 5, about a month before Biden’s deadline. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont said his state did too, provisionally opening the vaccine’s eligibility to all adults on April 5.
“It will still take some time to get the vaccine to everyone who wants it, and I ask for as much patience as possible,” Lamont said in a press release.
Officials in Washington, DC, said on Monday they would do the same until May 1, allowing anyone aged 16 and over who lives in the city to be vaccinated.
In New York, where the minimum age was recently reduced to 60, the state will open three new mass vaccination sites on Long Island later in the week, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference on Monday. The locations will be on university campuses in Old Westbury, Brentwood and Southampton.
More categories of workers who deal with the public will be eligible in New York on Wednesday, including government officials, construction service workers and employees of nonprofit groups. Mr. Cuomo has not yet announced how or when the state would open eligibility for all adults.
About 92.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered since Biden’s inauguration, according to data released on Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the current rate, the country will approve 100 million doses of Biden before the end of the week.