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Topline
New Jersey will open its Covid-19 vaccinations to all residents ages 16 and older April 19, Gov. Phil Murphy announced Monday, becoming the latest state to announce plans or signal its intention to vaccinate all adults in the state even before the May 1 deadline President Joe Biden has imposed.
People stand in line to receive a Covid-19 vaccine on March 10, 2021 in North Miami, Florida. (Photo … [+]
Key Facts
All residents age 16 and up in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin are now eligible to receive the Covid-19 vaccine.
April 7: North Carolina will expand access to all adults and Maine will expand to all residents ages 16 and up.
April 9: Missouri will open eligibility to all adults.
April 18: Virginia will open eligibility to everyone ages 16 and up.
April 27: Maryland will open eligibility to everyone 16 and up.
May 1: Biden has directed all states, tribes and territories to open eligibility to the general public by this date, with Hawaii, Oregon and Washington, D.C. suggesting they will only expand eligibility then.
Big Number
167.2 million. That’s how many vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S. as of Monday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Contra
An Associated Press analysis found states that had quickly widened which populations could get the vaccine—like South Carolina and Florida—actually had lower vaccination rates over those moving more “slowly and methodically,” as the rapidly expanding states may not have the infrastructure to cover the increased demand. “If you’re more targeted and more focused, you can do a better job,” Surgo Ventures executive director Sema Sgaier, whose health-data organization conducted the analysis with the AP, told the outlet. “You can open it up — if you have set up the infrastructure to vaccinate all those people fast.”
Key Background
Covid-19 vaccinations have been quickly increasing over the past few weeks as supply has shot up, with Bloomberg reporting the U.S. administered an average of 3.08 million doses per day in the last week. Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna have said they will deliver 300 million vaccine doses to the U.S. government by the end of July, while Johnson & Johnson, whose vaccine was only recently approved for U.S. use, will deliver 100 million in the first half of 2021. The U.S.’s infrastructure for administering the vaccine has also expanded as supply has increased: CVS recently expanded its Covid-19 vaccination program to 12 additional states, for instance, and the Biden administration has set up a number of federally-run vaccine sites across the country.
Further Reading
Biden Will Direct States To Make Vaccines Open To Everybody By May (Forbes)
Utah Governor: All Adults Will Be Vaccine Eligible April 1 (Associated Press)
Alaska makes vaccines available to those 16 and older, becoming first state to remove eligibility requirements (Washington Post)
Biden Now Promises Vaccines For Every Adult By Mid-May — Weeks Earlier Than Expected (Forbes)
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