Starting Monday, February 22, an additional group of Louisiana residents will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
The expanded eligibility group includes K-12 teachers, school support staff, daycare staff, those who are pregnant, and Louisianans aged 55 to 64 with certain health conditions. This group represents around 475,000 Louisianans and will bring the total population eligible in Louisiana to nearly 1.65 million people. Louisiana is currently vaccinating people in Priority Group 1B-Tier One.
Priority Group 1-A: Ongoing (around 249,000 eligible people)
-Health care workers at Tier 1 and Tier 2 hospitals
-Staff and residents of nursing homes and long-term care facilities
-First responders to serve as vaccinators (Emergency Medical Services, fire personnel, law enforcement)
Priority Group 1-B, Tier One: As of Monday, February 22, 2021 (around 1,391,000 eligible people)
-Dialysis providers and patients
-Ambulatory and outpatient providers and staff
-Behavioral health providers and staff
-Urgent care clinic providers and staff
-Community care providers and staff
-Dental providers and staff
-Nonemergency Medical Transportation staff
-Professional home care providers (including hospice workers) and home care recipients (including older and younger people with disabilities over the age of 16 who receive community or home-based care, as well as clients of home health agencies)
-American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters and Support Service Providers (SSPs) working in community and clinic-based settings, and clients who are both deaf and blind.
-Health-related support personnel (lab staff, mortuary staff who have contact with corpses, pharmacy staff)
-Schools of allied health students, residents and staff
-Law enforcement and other first responders
-Persons 65 years old and older
-Louisiana Unified Command Group
-State and local essential COVID emergency response personnel
-Some elections staff ahead of March and April elections-Teachers and any other support staff working onsite in K-12 or daycare-Individuals aged 55-64 with at least one of the conditions listed by the CDC as placing them at an “increased risk of severe illness from the virus that causes COVID-19.” The CDC list of conditions can be found here.
-Cancer
-Chronic kidney disease
-COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
-Down Syndrome
-Heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
-Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant-Obesity
-Severe obesity
-Pregnancy
-Sickle Cell Disease
-Smoking
-Type 2 diabetes mellitus
-All pregnant persons, regardless of age.
