United States governors accelerate coronavirus vaccine approval as new cases rise nationally, making vaccination efforts more urgent.
California will open vaccination eligibility to residents aged 50 or older on April 1 and expand it to residents 16 and over on April 15, state officials said Thursday, saying they could do so because of U.S. vaccine supplies increases federal government. And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that any state resident aged 40 or older would be eligible starting Monday, and that the minimum age would drop to 18 on April 5.
In Connecticut, one of the most vaccinated states in the country, Governor Ned Lamont said Thursday that all residents 16 and older would be eligible from April 1. New Hampshire will begin making footage available to residents aged 16 and over beginning April 2nd. and North Carolina on April 7th. In Rhode Island, Governor Dan McKee said the state is on track to make vaccines available to all residents 16 and older by April 19.
Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear said the state will open vaccinations for people 40 years and older starting Monday and keep a mask mandate in place for at least another 30 days. And in Minnesota, Governor Tim Walz is expected to announce on Friday that all residents over the age of 16 will be eligible from March 30th.
Alaska, Mississippi, Utah, and West Virginia are the only states where all adults are now eligible to receive shots. However, many more have announced plans to upgrade eligibility on or before May 1, a goal that President Biden has set. Some local jurisdictions have also started vaccinating all adults.
The nation takes an average of 2.5 million vaccine doses a day. At this rate, around half of the country’s population would be at least partially vaccinated by mid-May.
California will also allow health care providers, at their own discretion, to immediately vaccinate family members of eligible individuals, even if the family members would otherwise not be eligible, Governor Gavin Newsom said in a statement.
State officials said they expected California to receive 2.5 million doses per week in the first half of April and more than 3 million in the second half of the month, a significant increase from the current pace of about 1.8 million doses per week.
Mr Newsom has been under heavy pressure for weeks to accelerate the state’s vaccination efforts. Experts say its ability to fend off a recall campaign could depend on vaccinating millions of residents and lifting remaining restrictions so the state can be closer to normal when voters are asked to decide its fate.
The governor has repeatedly stated that short and unpredictable deliveries are responsible for a confusing and chaotic vaccination process that has left many poorer communities behind.
State officials abruptly announced earlier this month that 40 percent of the state’s new vaccine doses would go to communities at risk, but the move frustrated local Bay Area officials who had almost none of the prioritized communities.
Dr. Jeffrey V. Smith, the executive director of Santa Clara County, recently described the program as “a fake stock plan”. Mayor Vicente Sarmiento of Santa Ana, the seat of Orange County and home to many lower-income Latinos, praised the plan.
Florida, more than most states, has emphasized age rather than occupation or other risk factors in its approach to vaccine approval. The state initially focused on people 65 and older, then lowered the age limit to 50. By Wednesday, 24 percent of the total Florida population had received at least one shot, and 14 percent were fully vaccinated, according to a New York Times analysis of the centers for control data and disease prevention.
The number of new virus cases reported in Florida has been around 4,600 per day in the past few weeks, a figure that health officials say is still too high, although it has fallen significantly from a high earlier this year.
The state’s efforts to reopen its tourism industry have not been without problems. In Miami Beach, local officials have been overwhelmed by night owls who have ignored safety precautions like wearing masks and social distancing. It got so bad that the city imposed a curfew and sent police in riot gear to disperse the crowd.
