All adults eligible for the COVID vaccine on April 5

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan announced Friday that all residents aged 16 and over will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on April 5, almost a month before May 1 promised by President Joe Biden.

People between the ages of 16 and 49 with certain medical conditions or disabilities will qualify from March 22, when children between the ages of 50 and 64 can start getting shot after a previous announcement. Two days later, on March 24, a federally selected regional mass vaccination site will open at Ford Field in Detroit to administer another 6,000 doses a day for two months.

“The safe COVID-19 vaccine is the most effective way to protect yourself, your family and others from the virus,” Governor Gretchen Whitmer said in a statement. “It will help the country return to normal and it will help the economy. “

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Michigan was the third state to announce broad eligibility this week. In Alaska, people over the age of 16 are now eligible. Utah will allow those who are at least 18 years old to be vaccinated beginning April 1.

The United States expects to have enough doses for adults by the end of May, but Biden warned that the process of effectively administering these doses will take some time. As of Wednesday, about 1.8 million people, 22 percent of Michigan’s population over the age of 16, had been completely or partially vaccinated.

Whitmer and state health officials said they opened the eligibility based on the amount of vaccines anticipated and the May 1 directive, Biden issued on Thursday in its first prime-time address. It may take “a few weeks” after April 5 for everyone who wants the vaccine to receive an appointment, according to the state health department. He said providers should, when scheduling meetings, take into account a person’s risk of occupational exposure and their vulnerability to severe illness.

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The Detroit site will operate 12 hours a day for eight weeks, vaccinating at least 168,000 people with two Pfizer photos, potentially more if a single-dose vaccine has been used in the past two weeks. Detroit has been selected by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which gives priority to vulnerable areas. Instructions on how to book an appointment will be announced in the coming days.

Kevin Sligh, FEMA’s interim administrator in the Great Lakes region, said the site will expand the vaccination rate “in an efficient, effective and equitable manner, with an explicit focus on ensuring that local communities at high risk of exposure to COVID-19 and the infection is not left behind. ”

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Follow David Eggert at https://twitter.com/DavidEggert00