Alabama still has a long way to go to vaccinate all of its health care workers and nursing home residents, but the picture for who gets the vaccines next is starting to appear.
As of December 27, the state has administered vaccines to 20,354 of the more than 300,000 health workers and residents and nursing homes and staff that make up Phase 1A of the state’s vaccine distribution plan.
But once it is further in 2021, the state will move to the next phases of the plan.
We do not know when Alabama will be able to move on to the next phase, but here is the general order in which people will receive the vaccine.
- Phase 1A: The first round of vaccines were designated for frontline health workers, nursing homes or other residents and employees of long-term care facilities, as well as laboratory workers or staff performing COVID-19 tests and pathologists performing autopsies on persons known or suspected to be infected. when they died. These health workers are organized into more detailed levels based on their perceived level of risk in their work, with the greatest risk being that individuals first get the vaccine. This phase is currently underway.
- Phase 1B: The next level to receive the vaccine includes Alabamians 75 years or older, as well as people considered essential workers. These include police and firefighters, U.S. Postal Service workers, correctional officers, food and agriculture workers, manufacturing workers, grocery stores, public transportation. Phase 1B also includes those working in the education sector, such as teachers, support staff, as well as child care workers.
- Phase 1C: Phase 1C includes all Alabamians 65 years and older, as well as people aged 16-64 with high-risk medical conditions. Such conditions include: cancer, chronic kidney disease, COPD, heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies, weakened immune system, solid organ transplantation, obesity (BM> 30 kg / m2), sickle cell disease, smoking, type 2 diabetes, and pregnancy. This phase also includes additional essential workers in the fields of transport and logistics, waste and wastewater, food service, shelter and housing, (eg construction), finance (eg bank tellers), information technology and communication, energy, law, media, public safety (e.g. engineers) and public health workers.
- Phase 2: Phase 2 includes the general public and all Alabamans who are not included in Phase 1.
The ADPH did not set out a detailed timeline for when it could move from one phase to the next. The department says it will notify people on its website and via news reports when new groups of people are eligible to receive the vaccine.
Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris said it could take months for the vaccine to be available to the general public.
“We want to manage people’s expectations in the right way and remind the public that not everyone has access to vaccine at the moment,” Harris said in a news release. “For the New Year holidays and beyond, I encourage people to please stay home and keep their events short, outside, if possible, and only with everyone wearing masks.”
For more details on the Alabama Vaccination Plan, visit the ADPH Web site.