Teachers, school staff now eligible for COVID vaccine in Georgia. Here’s what we know
Teachers and school staff will soon be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp announced in a press conference Thursday.
Phase 1A+ vaccine distribution had previously been limited to adults over 65, first responders, health care workers, nursing home staff and other frontline categories. One million more Georgians will soon be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.
Starting March 8, Phase 1A+ will also include the following:
- Pre-K through 12th grade educators and staff
- Adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities and their caregivers
- Parents of children with complex medical conditions
To register, visit myvaccinegeorgia.com. Registration can be completed prior to March 8.
Educators and school staff comprise about 450,000 residents in Georgia. The inclusion of teachers comes after months of disapproval from parents and the education community, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
In the next ten days, school administrators will identify and coordinate vaccinations with the Department of Health and the State Department of Education.
Vaccine supply has been the main obstacle to expanding vaccine criteria, the governor has previously said.
The increased production of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will provide Georgia with increased vaccine allocation. However, the supply will still fall short of meeting the demand from the newly expanded Phase 1A+ group, Kemp said Thursday.
“We’re continuing to look at the data. We just need to know how many doses of the vaccine that we’re going to have,” Kemp said at the Delta Flight Museum vaccination site Wednesday.
Roughly 215,000 vaccine doses are now sent to Georgia per week, up from 150,000 per week earlier in February. Georgia has distributed about 1.9 million vaccine doses to roughly 1.2 million Georgians, with 700,000 Georgians receiving second doses.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 3:46 PM.