Updated at 5:03 p.m.
With the Johnson & Johnson vaccine receiving emergency use authorization and the federal pharmacy program ramping up supply, Gov. Phil Scott announced Tuesday that school staff, public safety employees, child care workers and more Vermonters with high-risk conditions will become eligible for Covid-19 vaccinations starting next week.
Phase 5 of the state’s vaccination program will open March 8, Scott said, for high-risk Vermonters age 55 and over. Starting March 15, people with the same high-risk conditions age 16 and over will become eligible. All told, that’s about 75,000 people, according to administration officials.
Public and private school staff and child care workers will also become eligible March 8. More information about how educators can register for vaccinations will be released Friday. Roughly 35,000 people are included in this category.
The state is also expanding eligibility for more public safety workers starting March 8, including correctional officers, police sergeants and lieutenants, and 911 dispatchers. Prisons have experienced massive outbreaks during the pandemic, and Scott said officials believed that prison staff were “the only port of entry for the virus” into such facilities.
“If we can establish a perimeter, so to speak, and defend that perimeter, then we should be able to keep everyone safe,” he said.
School-based immunization clinics are expected to deliver the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but school staff and child care workers will also have access to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine through the state’s partnership with Walgreens.
Unlike the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one shot and does not need to be stored at ultra-cold temperatures. That makes it the “ideal candidate for this type of onsite vaccination approach,” Human Services Secretary Mike Smith said Tuesday. Correctional officers will also be able to access the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at worksites, or the two-dose shots through Walgreens.
The state announced for the first time how high-risk Vermonters can register for the vaccine. Like those eligible under the age-banding process, people with eligible conditions will self-certify that they qualify but will not need to provide documentation of their conditions.
They will be asked to provide information about their medical provider, with whom the state might follow up to determine eligibility, Smith said. But Vermonters who don’t have a doctor should still register if they have a qualifying condition listed on the Department of Health website, officials said.
The Scott administration has pressed local education officials to more fully reopen schools, and the governor has said he would like all K-12 students to be back in class five days a week sometime in April.
Educators have responded that virus mitigation measures should not be relaxed without, at a minimum, additional protection for school staff and teachers.
“Nobody wants to see students return to the state’s classrooms more than teachers, paraeducators, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, school nurses, and administrators,” Vermont-NEA president Don Tinney said in a statement. “But, as we’ve said all along, this can only happen when it is demonstrably safe to do so. Vaccinating school employees is a big step in the right direction.”
The amount of vaccine distributed to states from the federal government has fluctuated from week to week, and the fluidity of the situation was on display Tuesday. Scott left the press conference for about half an hour to speak with federal officials and returned with updated numbers about the expected vaccine supply.
A wrinkle in the plan
The “encouraging news,” he said, is that Vermont will receive at minimum 15,000 doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines per week for the next three weeks, and that number should increase during the last week of March.
But fewer than expected doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will arrive right away, which Scott acknowledged could create a “wrinkle” in plans to quickly vaccinate educators.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine will not be distributed next week, Scott said, and the federal government is not guaranteeing anything the week after that. But by the end of March, the state should be receiving about 4,000 to 6,000 doses weekly, he said.
Before Scott’s call with the federal government, administration officials said they hoped to have school staff vaccinated by the first weeks of April. Both Scott and Smith said the news from the feds could create some challenges for their strategy, but they expressed optimism the plan could still be executed.
“We’ll have to call an audible,” Smith said. He added that the state believed it already had more Johnson & Johnson vaccine on hand than the federal government thought, and that Vermont might be able to tap into its unused reserves in the first couple of weeks of March.
“We were going to start this program deliberately, slowly and then ramp up. And it seems like the schedule that the feds are putting forward is coinciding with what we anticipated, in terms of our rollout here,” he said.
Once eligible, individuals must register for their appointments through the state’s online portal or can make appointments directly through Walgreens or Kinney Drugs. Homebound individuals or those who can’t register online can make appointments through the state’s call center at 855-722-7878.
Smith said over 20,000 Vermonters age 65 and over have registered for a vaccine appointment since that age band opened this week. The state also hit a new milestone: Over 100,000 Vermonters have received at least one dose of the vaccine, or 19% of the state’s adult population.
The Department of Health reports that 78% of Vermonters 75 and over and 38% of Vermonters 70 to 74 have received at least one shot.
March ‘key’ in pandemic battle
March will be a key month in Vermont’s fight against Covid, pitting the state’s vaccination program and viral control efforts against the potential for the spread of virus variants, Levine said.
Administration officials also outlined a plan to massively ramp up the pace of vaccinations as supply increases, including by deputizing the Vermont National Guard to run mass immunization sites. Through the federal pharmacy program, Walgreens and Kinney Drugs are both already distributing the vaccine to eligible Vermonters, and Walmart will start vaccinations, as well, at six stores across the state.
“By March 15, we will increase our capacity to administer 25,000 doses of vaccine per week. And by month’s end, we will increase our capacity to administer 35,000 doses of vaccine per week,” Smith said.
Vermont continues to report declining case rates, with about a 20% decrease in cases over the past two weeks, Financial Regulation Commissioner Mike Pieciak said during the state’s data update. Cases among the oldest Vermonters have tanked, and long-term care facilities in the state report only two outbreaks.
So, the state’s forecast predicts Covid cases will continue on a slow decline. But Pieciak said Vermonters’ behavior in the next six weeks will determine whether that prediction comes to pass.
“These forecasted improvements are certainly not guaranteed,” he said. “And with the high active case count in Vermont and new variants circulating throughout our regions, these trends can quickly reverse.”
Case numbers ticked up this week in the region by 8%, and increased slightly at a national level as well. Pieciak said it’s too early to say whether that increase is a sign of a long-term trend.
In Vermont, the Department of Health reported 70 new cases of the virus Tuesday, and one additional death, bringing the total to 206. The state’s test positivity rate is fairly low, at 1.5%, Levine said.
Franklin and Bennington counties’ surges in Covid cases are trending downward, although Franklin County’s cases are declining at a slower rate. College cases are also trending downward, with 39 cases reported this week, the lowest so far this semester, Pieciak said.
Levine said the state continued its testing at ski resorts last week. It tested 264 people and received eight positives, compared to 220 people with a “few” positives the week before.
“My takeaway from this data is what we didn’t find: We didn’t find high rates of Covid brought into the state,” he said.
To register for a vaccine appointment or get information on walk-in clinics, visit healthvermont.gov/MyVaccine or call 855-722-7878.
You will be asked to provide your name, date of birth, address, email (if available), phone number, and health insurance information (if available, but not required).
