ALABAMA – Hundreds of thousands of Alabamians will soon be eligible to get the COVID vaccine after Governor Kay Ivey and the state health department changed course.
Mobile County’s top doctor says it is the right time to start expanding vaccinations to people 75 and older as well as first responders, but he does say supply is still limited.
“We need to be giving vaccine to the people who need it the most and we don’t need to miss a single day of vaccinating individuals,” said Dr. Bert Eichold, the Mobile County Health Officer.
Governor Ivey made the announcement Friday morning that on January 18th Alabama will start vaccinating people 75 and older, as well as first responders, like police and firefighters.
Dr. Eichold says it will take time to get this new group vaccinated.
“It’s going to be a slower start then a lot of people want, but we do not want to be like in Florida where people are waiting in lines for hours and then not being able to get vaccine,” he said.
During a one-on-one interview on Wednesday with State Health Officer Dr. Scott Harris he said it was too early to allow more groups access to the vaccine.
“There’s just really really large numbers of shots that we still need to give before we start moving down into other phases,” he said.
48 hours later, the Alabama Department of Public Health shifted its stance in an effort to provide protection to high risk groups and to prevent any loss of vaccine due to storage requirements.
“We felt it was important to pick up these additional sub groups as part of our vaccination effort, but still being aware that we do not have enough vaccine to vaccinate every one of these persons,” said Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health.
At the health department, hospitals and many urgent cares in Mobile County an appointment will be mandatory.
“Don’t just show up because we don’t want to create frustration,” Dr. Eichold said.
If you fit the new criteria, you would need to schedule an appointment by calling 1-855-566-5333. The phone line is open 7 days a week from 8 am to 5 pm.
Since the phone line opened on Friday, ADPH says over 300,000 have called and they are asking for patience because phone lines are jammed.
The Mobile County Health Department confirmed to me they just got an additional 2,000 vaccine doses.
Infirmary Health: As directed by Gov. Kay Ivey, Infirmary Health will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine to citizens who are 75 years or older and first responders by appointment only, effective January 18. Information on appointment availability will be published the moment it is available, as Infirmary Health works to double its vaccine capacity.
Springhill Medical Center: We currently are giving the COVID-19 vaccine to the individuals who are in the 1a very high and high risk category (“critical healthcare workforce”) set forth by the Alabama Department of Public Health. We will begin Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2021, vaccinating those in the 1a medium risk category (“critical healthcare workforce”). Currently, we have not received our vaccine allotment for those in the 1b category, which includes individuals 75 years and older. We will evaluate our vaccine allotment on Wednesday, Jan. 13. At that time, we will open scheduling for those groups depending on the vaccine allotment received from the State of Alabama. Vaccinations for group 1b will begin the week of Jan. 18, 2021. Please continue to check our website for further information.
