All Louisiana residents 16 years of age and older are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Governor John Bel Edwards made the announcement of the vaccine expansion on Wednesday at a weekly press conference.
Edwards said that Louisiana would see increasing allocations of vaccines beginning on Monday, March 29.
Louisiana is now slated to get more than 148,000 first doses directly this week, in addition to vaccine doses provided to partner pharmacies in a federal pharmacy program as well as the Federally Qualified Health Care Center program.
More than one million Louisianans have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
"Based on the doses that we will have available in the coming week, now is absolutely the time to expand vaccine eligibility as broadly as we possibly can, which is to everyone age 16 or older in Louisiana. This is an exciting development, but the hard work of making sure our family members, friends, coworkers and neighbors all have access to the vaccine will continue for months," Gov. Edwards said about the vaccine expansion. "Our goal has been to get vaccine doses we receive into someone's arm within seven days of the doses arriving, because a shot sitting on a shelf doesn't help us end this pandemic. All three available vaccines are safe and effective for every community and they represent our best hope of being able to Bring Louisiana Back."
Appointments will still be required and providers may need time to update their scheduling systems, which means that people may have to wait a few days to schedule their appointments for next week.
There are three authorized COVID-19 vaccines used in the United States: two-dose vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna and a one-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson. People ages 16 and 17 are only eligible to receive the Pfizer vaccine, and they should consult their primary care doctor or vaccine provider to ensure the proper vaccine is administered.
For a list of vaccination locations, which are updated every Monday on the Louisiana Department of Health website, click here.
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