As the Covid-19 vaccine stock expands, so do eligible groups.

South Carolina is not the only state currently vaccinating people younger than the average retirement age in the United States.

Just days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine for emergency use – indicating the country’s third vaccine against Covid-19 – more states began to vaccinate adults in their 50s brei.

More countries to vaccinate those in their fifties

“The continuation of the vaccination of older Arizonans against Covid-19 will help protect those at risk and cover a majority of Arizonans with chronic medical conditions,” Ducey said in part in the statement.

Ducey’s office noted that local health departments in the state can switch to vaccinating younger adults when they reach 55% of current eligible ages after being vaccinated, or if they feel there is no longer a demand to the vaccine under current ages.

“As a result of these successes, we are now able to consider the majority of South Carolina to receive the vaccine,” he said.

Tom Hudachko, a spokesman for Utah’s Department of Health, told CNN on Thursday that Utah’s move to consider vaccination for younger adults stems from several factors, including obtaining additional doses and a decrease in the question in the groups currently eligible.

These expansions are a “positive sign” for public health, said Lori Tremmel Freeman, chief executive officer of the National Association of County and City Health Officials.

“If you talk about some states that want to vaccinate people over 50, it’s a positive sign that they’ve saturated and expanded the previous priority group – so this is all good news and it will happen very quickly and naturally with the expansion of the supply chain. also, ”Freeman told CNN on Thursday.

Health officials expect more doses

“We will see by the end of March and beginning of April that Johnson & Johnson is part of the bigger picture of the total doses,” Freeman said. “Then by April we will be doing up to 22 to 24 million doses through these distribution channels to state and local governments.”

In total, approximately 82.6 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered in the United States, according to data published Thursday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The number is about 75% of the more than 109 million doses.

This is about 2 million more doses administered since Wednesday, for an average of seven days of more than 2 million doses per day.

“I think we will not only be on the path of recovery from a physical and health perspective, but also from an economic perspective, and that I can not be happier from an economic perspective,” Mandel said. anxiously awaiting his vaccine in South Carolina.

Some countries extend not only the admission to Covid-19 vaccines to younger ages, but also other specific groups of people. For example, as of Thursday afternoon, there are 38 states where teachers are eligible for Covid-19 vaccines.

As Biden announced that it was its priority for all teachers to receive at least their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this month, several states either immediately opened it to teachers or announced the dates on which they would begin, including: several that teachers began to allow this week.

Among the remaining 12 states where teachers are not currently eligible, Georgia, South Carolina and Vermont plan to begin vaccinating teachers on March 8. Missouri and New Jersey plan to begin vaccinating teachers on March 15.

As more states expand their vaccination criteria against Covid-19, residents can expect to try harder to ensure that vaccinations are administered fairly and equitably, Freeman said.

And in Tennessee, Freeman said, they use criteria for social vulnerability.

“In this particular case, the distribution of vaccines is targeted at communities that have socio-economic conditions that make health more difficult in general. So this is one example, and there are others like it,” she said. “We need to turn away from some of these priority groups, or within these priority groups, if we really want to mean that this vaccine distribution should be fair … and we need to do it quickly.”

As state and local governments receive more doses of the vaccine, health officials and activists are sounding the alarm about the need for better planning and outreach in vulnerable communities.

“There may be a shortage of products,” she said, “but there is no shortage of opportunities to make contact with organizations that have roots in these communities to jointly develop a delivery system for these parts of society is not going to work. “

The hunt for appointments

Freeman said her organization had previously heard of some people crossing provincial or state borders to gain access to vaccines in communities where they are eligible to be vaccinated – but not where they live. In January, one Covid-19 vaccination room in a predominantly Latino neighborhood in New York City was hit by the pandemic, an overwhelming number of white people from outside the community turned up to get the vaccine, city leaders said.

“There was no real guidance or restrictions early in the spread,” Freeman said of people traveling for vaccines.

“We saw quite quickly a knock on registration systems that in some cases required proof of residence, or you had to provide your zip code,” she said. “But some of these measures apply simply because we have supply constraints – they will disappear if we have enough supplies to vaccinate every adult.”

Megan Wade-Taxter, a state spokeswoman, told CNN in an email Thursday. Proof of Indiana residence is required to obtain a vaccine in Indiana.

Meanwhile, there are no residency requirements for South Carolina, the state emergency services said in an email Thursday.

South Carolina-based Mandel hopes to find an appointment before March 8 – when the state plans to vaccinate adults 55 and older – if he’s lucky. Either way, he is confident he will be vaccinated before the end of the month and possibly collect $ 100 from his winning game.

“The worst case scenario, Sunday afternoon I’m going to see if they open at CVS and Walgreens the next day,” he said. “I will have my phone in my hand and my computer on my lap, ready to go.”