Demand Lowers For COVID Vaccines In San Juans As State Increases Eligibility

Contributed Photo/San Juan County

From San Juan County

In a wel­come sign of progress, the vac­cine reg­is­tra­tion win­dow on Mon­day, March 22, had slots avail­able for almost five hours after opening.

While the out­reach to those who are eli­gi­ble but not yet vac­ci­nat­ed con­tin­ues, this decreased demand indi­cates the appro­pri­ate­ness of expand­ing eli­gi­bil­i­ty further.

As per a recent deci­sion by Wash­ing­ton State Gov. Jay Inslee, as of March 31, eli­gi­bil­i­ty for the COVID vac­cine will be expand­ed to include those indi­vid­u­als in Phase 1b Tiers 3 and 4.

These new­ly eli­gi­ble groups may sign up to receive their vac­cine at the next avail­able San Juan Coun­ty Health & Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices clin­ic (mon­i­tor this page for most cur­rent infor­ma­tion). Oth­er vac­cine providers in the islands will soon fol­low the new reg­u­la­tions as well.

Please note that these new­ly eli­gi­ble groups include over 2,000 islanders, so vac­cine appoint­ments will be in short sup­ply for at least the next cou­ple of weeks. Though San Juan Coun­ty has one of the high­est vac­cine rates in Wash­ing­ton, local demand far exceeds the avail­able doses.

The fol­low­ing groups are now eli­gi­ble for the vaccine:

• Indi­vid­u­als age 60 or old­er (pre­vi­ous­ly was 65+)
• Indi­vid­u­als who work in restau­rants, man­u­fac­tur­ing, or construction
• 16 years or old­er with two or more comor­bidi­ties. At this time the Mod­er­na vac­cine being giv­en in San Juan Coun­ty is only approved for those 18 or older.
• 16 years or old­er and live in a con­gre­gate set­ting, for exam­ple, cor­rec­tion­al facil­i­ties, group homes for peo­ple with dis­abil­i­ties, those expe­ri­enc­ing homelessness. 

As always, islanders are asked to be thought­ful and con­sid­er­ate when deter­min­ing their eli­gi­bil­i­ty. Please respect the requirements.

As a reminder, the fol­low­ing groups remain eli­gi­ble for vaccine:

• Med­ical work­ers and all first responders
• All 65 years or older
• Those work­ing in gro­cery stores or restaurants
• Pre-K-12 edu­ca­tors, school staff, and child­care workers
• Those work­ing in high-risk agri­cul­ture or food pro­cess­ing settings
• Those 16 or old­er who are preg­nant. At this time the Mod­er­na vac­cine being giv­en in San Juan Coun­ty is only approved for those 18 or older.
• Those liv­ing or work­ing in long term care facilities
• Those work­ing in courts or cor­rec­tion­al facilities 
• Those 50 or old­er liv­ing in a multi­gen­er­a­tional household

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