- Olympia, WA
On Wednesday, 5 million more Washington residents will become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. Governor Jay Inslee announced that those who are 16 and older with two or more health conditions, anyone between the ages of 60 and 64, along with workers who are 16 and older who work in restaurants, manufacturing and construction occupations. In addition, those living in congregate settings like correctional facilities or group homes for disabilities, or those experiencing homeless will now also be eligible for the vaccine.
After this next tier only about 1.2 million residents will be left to vaccinate and Washington State said they will comply with President Biden's executive order of allowing everyone who is 16+ and older an appointment for the vaccine if they want one by May 1st.
"We're certainly continuing to do what we believe is best for the state of Washington. But I do want to say that we are having discussions about the data," said Dr. Umair Shah, the state's secretary of health. "If we can advance it sooner, then we're absolutely going to do that. But again, right now, we want to balance that with also making sure that eligibility for those most at risk is still there."
According to the Washington State Department of Health, approx. more than 3.2 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine have been administered into arms with more than 16% of the state’s population being fully vaccinated. The data is also including those who have been administered with newly authorized Johnson & Johnson's one-shot vaccine. According to the John Hopkins University, The United States in total so far has recorded more than 30.3 million confirmed SARS-cov-2 (COVID-19) cases and over 550,000 deaths. The United States however is now the leading nation when it comes to vaccine administration as more vaccines are being administered than the daily amount of new infections.