Thread by @JSODonoghue

Today, commercial pharmacies in Louisiana are expected to get 1000s of #COVID19 vaccine doses for the first time. Also, this week is the 1st time lots of ppl who aren't health care workers/institution residents are eligible to receive the vaccine. #lalege lailluminator.com/2021/01/04/7-t…

I've put together a list of things you should know about Louisiana's vaccine distribution at the moment. You can find it here. lailluminator.com/2021/01/04/7-t… #lalege #lagov

As state above, Louisiana is entering its fourth week of vaccine distribution and this is the first time large groups of people who aren't working in a health care facility or living in a nursing home/long-term care facility are eligible for the vaccine here. #lalege #lagov

This week, the number of people eligible for the vaccine in Louisiana has more than tripled. It went from roughly 249k people last week to 899k people this week. #lalege #lagov

This is largely because -- starting this week -- anyone age 70 and over is eligible to get the vaccine in Louisiana. That adds approximately 480k people to the total list of people eligible to get the vaccine. So, over half of the total 899k people eligible. #lalege #lagov

.@CDCgov had recommended that people ages 75 and over get the vaccine, but Louisiana dropped that age threshold to 70. Officials said they aligns with those in La. who have been at highest risk for death/going into the hospital. #lalege #lagov

Though people ages 70 and over are all eligible to get the vaccine (485k people), VERY few doses will actually be available for these folks. There will only be about 10k doses that are accessible to people in this age group. And they might have to be shared with others. #lalege

If a person ages 70 and over wants to try and get the vaccine, they have to call a local pharmacy and make an appointment. They cannot "walk-in" to get the vaccine. And many pharmacies won't have it this week. #lalege #lagov

A little over 100 pharmacies will get the vaccine. State officials said they have attempted to spread out those pharmacies across the state. But they haven't released the list of pharmacies getting the vaccine yet. That's expected to happen later today. #lalege #lagov

Like the whole country, Louisiana hasn't distributed very much of the #COVID19 vaccine that it has received. As of last week, it had only given out about 45k doses of the 210k doses it had received over the first three weeks of distribution. So less than a quarter. #lalege

.@JoeKanter said the biggest challenge to distributing the vaccine is figuring out how to "minimize waste" of it. “At the end of the day, the most care has to be given to securing the storage of the doses. We cannot accept any undue loss right now.” #lalege #lagov

Louisiana officials have also said it makes it difficult to plan for distribution when the state/hospitals/pharmacies, etc. don't know how many doses of the vaccines they are getting from week to week. #lalege #lagov

.@LouisianaGov has given a rough outline of who will be able to get the vaccine next. It includes: people who work for pharmacies, labs, mortuaries, courts, prisons, jails, medical transportation services, homeless shelters, congregate settings.... [continued] #lalege

People who work for K-12 schools, daycares, food processing facilities, agricultural operations, public transit, the postal service and grocery stores. Also "essential governmental response personnel,” national guardsmen... [continued] #lalege

...federal government workers who deal with homeland security and intelligence, first responders who haven’t been covered yet and “essential frontline workers”.

Again, these people are "on deck" for the vaccine, but it's not clear when they will be made eligible. #lalege

.@LouisianaGov has not received the vaccine yet. He says he will get it when state workers who deal with homeland security/emergency ops are made eligible. (That looks to be one of the next groups up for eligibility, but no date has been set for that expansion yet.) #lalege

Again, here's a summary of what's going on with vaccine distribution in Louisiana at the moment. #lalege #lagov lailluminator.com/2021/01/04/7-t… # #. .