Connecticut Announces All Residents 16+ Eligible For Vaccine April 5; Transportation, Public Safety Workers And More Eligible In New Jersey
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- There were major announcements Monday about expanded COVID vaccine eligibility in the Tri-State Area.
Starting April 5, Connecticut will make all residents age 16 and older eligible to make appointments to be vaccinated - thanks to a substantial increase in vaccine shipments.
"So because the rollout is going along pretty well, because the supply — we have a three-week window from the Biden administration — is strong and stronger than we had anticipated even just a couple of weeks ago, we're going to be able to accelerate our schedule just a bit," Gov. Ned Lamont said.
Meanwhile, the state plans to work with health care providers and the Department of Developmental Services to accelerate access to vaccinations for the most medically high-risk individuals under age 45 during the month of April.
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President Joe Biden's administration informed the state that it should be receiving a "significant" increase in vaccine doses over the next several weeks from the three-approved companies. The state expects to receive about 130,000 doses this week, a figure that Lamont predicted could climb to about 200,000 doses by early April.
Currently, everyone age 55 and older, health care personnel, medical first responders, residents and staff at long-term care facilities and select congregate settings, and pre-K-12 school staff and professional childcare providers are allowed to get the shot.
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Under this latest revised plan, individuals age 45 to 54 will be able to begin making their appointments on March 19, instead of March 22, as originally planned.
Connecticut had also previously planned to allow people age 35 years and older to begin getting vaccinations on April 12 and everyone age 16 and older on May 3.
Meanwhile, New Jersey reached 1 million people fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the state's online data dashboard showed on Monday.
Just over 3 million people have had at least one of the two-shot vaccines, according to the state Health Department site.
Gov. Phil Murphy had also set Monday as the eligibility date for teachers and other school staff, but they got bumped up to earlier in March because of guidance from the Biden administration.
The milestone comes the same day New Jersey expanded vaccine eligibility to include transportation workers, members of tribal communities, the homeless, migrant farm workers and childcare workers.
Those who are homeless or living in shelters, including facilities for domestic violence victims, can also get vaccinated.
Monday also marked the start of a push in Jersey City, New Jersey to vaccinate public school teachers. Mayor Steve Fulop said priority shifted this week to the school system - one of the largest in the state.
Watch: Jersey City Launches Vaccination Plan For Public School Teachers --
The city is allocating all of its vaccines to the 4,700 public school teachers in the district. It's part of an effort to get nearly 30,000 students back to in-person learning as early as April 21.
The Jersey City school district has been fully remote since March 2020.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
