COVID vaccine opens Monday to 16 and over
Starting Monday, Louisiana will open COVID-19 vaccine access to all residents age 16 and over, regardless of health condition, thus becoming one of the latest states to announce plans to vaccinate all adults before President Joe Biden’s hoped-for May 1 deadline.
Only the Pfizer vaccine is approved for 16- and 17-year-olds. Residents age 18 and older are already eligible to receive any of the three currently available vaccines. Appointments will still be required to get the injections.
Gov. John Bel Edwards announced the expanded eligibility last week. He said the expansion is being made possible because Louisiana’s weekly allocation of doses will more than double.
“It’s a little bit of a surprise we got here as soon as we did,” Edwards said Wednesday during a press conference in Baton Rouge.
The state expects to get more than 148,000 first doses beginning Monday, in addition to the doses provided to partner pharmacies in a federal program, as well as doses coming through the Federal Qualified Health Care Center program.
“Come Monday, nobody needs to ask the question whether they are eligible. They just need to be 16,” Edwards said.
According to the Louisiana Department of Health, 6,367 Lincoln Parish residents age 18 and older had been fully vaccinated as of Thursday. Some 10,394 residents have initiated the vaccine process. Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two injections.
Parish Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Kip Franklin said the local clamor for the vaccine is lessening.
“It appears that most people who want the vaccine have had it,” Franklin said Friday. “It’s really wait and see now who wants to take it.”
Franklin said homeland security directors statewide are discovering only about 40% of eligible residents are opting to get the vaccine. Based on the LDH numbers, approximately 36% of Lincoln Parish residents have opted to be vaccinated so far.
Franklin is helping Northern Louisiana Medical Center reach out to businesses whose employees would like to receive the Pfizer vaccine.
Anyone wishing to get a shot at NLMC may call the hospital at 245-3467 or Franklin at 251-6454 to schedule an appointment. The next round of vaccinations at NLMC is Thursday.
Meanwhile, the sevenday average of newlyconfirmed COVID-19 cases in Lincoln Parish is at its lowest point since June, with an average of three, according to statistics from The New York Times.
As of noon Friday, Lincoln Parish had 3,290 confirmed cases of the virus since the count began a year ago. That’s up six cases from Thursday.
