BATON ROUGE, La. —
Governor John Bel Edwards has announced an expansion to the list of people who qualify to receive a COVID vaccine, adding Priority Group 1B Tier 2.
The governor made the announcement at a press conference held in Baton Rouge Thursday, March 18, but the expansion doesn't take effect until Monday, March 22.
Edwards made the announcement as the number of people in the state who have received one or both shots of the vaccine is growing rapidly with the help of increased supply and mass vaccination sites.
Priority Group 1B Tier 2 can get the vaccine beginning Monday
Priority Group 1B Tier 2 includes the following:
- Bank tellers
- Child, youth and family service workers
- Clergy
- Construction workers
- Energy workers
- Food and agricultural workers
- Food service (restaurant) workers, hotel workers and other hospitality workers
- Frontline government workers
- Grocery store workers
- Institutes of higher education faculty/staff
- IT and communications workers
- Judges, court staff, clerks of court and staff, district attorneys and public defenders
- Manufacturing workers
- Media workers
- Postal workers
- Public and private security and emergency preparedness workers
- Public health workers
- Public safety engineers and other workers
- Transportation workers including river pilots
- Veterinarians and support staff
- Water and wastewater workers
- Waste management workers
The following Louisianans have been eligible to get a COVID vaccine since March 9.
- Eligibility by Age or Condition
- People 65 and older
- Dialysis providers and patients
- Pregnant people
People with Certain Medical Conditions
- People 18-64 (or 16+ for Pfizer vaccine only) with at least one of the conditions listed below by the CDC. To receive the vaccine, people with these underlying medical conditions should complete the Louisiana COVID-19 Vaccine Attestation Form before their appointment.
- Cancer
- Chronic kidney disease
- COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease)
- Down syndrome
- Heart conditions including but not limited to heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies
- Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from solid organ transplant
- Obesity (body mass index [BMI] of 30kg/m2 or higher
- Sickle cell disease
- Current of former smoker
- Type 2 diabetes mellitus
- Asthma (moderate-to-severe)
- Cerebrovascular disease (affects blood vessels and blood supply to the brain)
- Cystic fibrosis
- Hypertension or high blood pressure
- Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) from blood or bone marrow transplant, immune deficiencies, HIV, use of corticosteroids, or use of other immune weakening medicines
- Chronic liver disease
- Overweight (BMI > 25 kg/m2, but < 30 kg/m2)
- Pulmonary fibrosis (having damaged or scarred lung tissues)
- Severe neurologic conditions such as dementia
- Thalassemia (a type of blood disorder)
- Type 1 diabetes mellitus
Eligibility by Workforce Category
- Ambulatory and outpatient providers and staff
- Dialysis providers
- Behavioral health providers and staff
- Urgent care clinic providers and staff
- Community care providers and staff
- Dental providers and staff
- Non-emergency Medical Transportation (NEMT) providers and staff
- Professional home care providers (including hospice workers) and home care recipients (including older and younger people with disabilities over the age of 16 who receive community or home-based care, as well as clients of home health agencies)
- American Sign Language (ASL) and foreign language interpreters and Support Service Providers (SSPs) working in community and clinic-based settings, and clients who are both deaf and blind
- Health-related support personnel (lab staff, mortuary staff who have contact with corpses, pharmacy staff)
- Schools of allied health students, residents and staff
- Law enforcement and other first responders
- Louisiana Unified Command Group
- State Legislators
- State and local essential COVID emergency response personnel
- Some elections staff ahead of March and April elections
- Teachers and any other support staff working on site in K-12 or daycare