March 11, 2021, 2:13 PM HST
The Hawaii Department of Health announces that the state will extend vaccine eligibility to people age 65 and older and those who qualify as members of Phase 1c starting Monday, March 15th.
“This is another huge step in the ongoing effort to protect Hawaiian residents from COVID-19,” said state health director Dr. Elizabeth Char. “We will continue to deliver vaccines shortly after their arrival and we are excited to be able to offer more to people now.”
To date, vaccines have been reserved for health care workers, long-term care workers, front-line essential workers and people aged 70 and over. The extension of eligibility to phase 1c allows the vaccination of people aged 65 and over, people with high-risk medical conditions and essential workers.
Essential workers are people from industries and occupations important to the functioning of society and at high risk of exposure. This includes people working in hotels and hotels, food services, banking and financial services, transportation, construction, media, logistics, information technology and more.
The weekly allocation of the Hawai’i vaccine from the federal government gradually increased from about 40,000 doses per week in early February to over 62,000 doses this week. This growth is expected to continue. However, phase 1c is the largest vaccination group in the state, as outlined in the executive summary of the state vaccination plan, and work on this phase will take several months.
“We still don’t have enough vaccines to reach everyone immediately. Everyone will have the opportunity to be vaccinated, but phase 1c represents a very large proportion of the community, so we ask people to be patient as the vaccination program continues to gain momentum, ”said Char.
Registration opportunities for those aged 65 and over and others in Phase 1c will soon be available through links posted on hawaiicovid19.com and from healthcare providers across the country.