A healthy Michigan resident over 50 can receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as March 22. | Unsplash
A healthy Michigan resident over 50 can receive the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as March 22. | Unsplash
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced her plans to extend eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine to approximately 2 million residents over age 50 in an effort to curb the number of coronavirus deaths while simultaneously doubling the number of people eligible to receive the vaccine, according to a recent report by Bridge Michigan.
“Making the vaccine available (to people over 50) will have an outsized impact on hospitalizations and deaths,” senior epidemiologist for Ottawa County, Derel Glashower, told Bridge Michigan.
The eligibility extension would allow residents over the age of 50, with underlying health conditions or disabilities, to potentially receive vaccinations as early as Monday, March 8.
Residents over 50, without preexisting health conditions, would be eligible starting Monday, March 22; previous estimates indicated that healthy individuals under 65 would not have been eligible for vaccines until July of this year.
This extension also places Michigan among a list of just two other states, Connecticut and Indiana, which have lowered the eligibility threshold for vaccines to residents aged 55 and over; most states are still focusing their efforts on providing vaccines to citizens 65 or older, according to Bridge Michigan.
The list of eligibility on Monday, March 8, also extends to those who live in homeless shelters, prison inmates and caregivers of children with special health care needs.
Clinics including the Detroit-based Wellness Plan Medical Center will help facilitate the administration of vaccines among the population by hiring extra staff in their locations across Detroit and Oakland County, according to Dr. Tiffany Sanford, chief medical officer.
“Ultimately, it’s about getting vaccines in as many arms as possible,” Sanford told Bridge Michigan.
Up until now, only the vaccines from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna have been available, which both require two doses. But as of Feb. 27, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved an emergency use authorization for a one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which will enable Michigan, as well as other states, to increase the rate at which their citizens are vaccinated. The goal to is to achieve "herd immunity," which would come when at least 70% of Michigan's adult residents have been vaccinated.
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