Sununu: School staff, people 50+ will be eligible for COVID vaccine this month

Mar. 5—The COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to K-12 school staff and people 50 and older in New Hampshire by the end of the month, with some school employees becoming eligible as early as next week, Gov. Chris Sununu announced Thursday.

Sununu said during a news conference that the state will begin phase 2A of its vaccine rollout, which covers school staff, in mid-March, with plans to launch phase 2B, which covers people 50 and over, by the end of March. The state has been making good progress in its vaccination efforts and is moving into the next phases earlier than expected, Sununu said.

"We're way ahead of schedule," he said. "In fact, we are on pace to move [to] 2A well before March is over. Our original goal was to start 2A sometime in early April."

The state's 13 regional public health networks will work with school administrative units to start vaccinating employees within their districts starting March 12, according to Sununu. For districts unable to set up vaccinations with the health networks, state-run vaccination sites will begin booking appointments for school employees, as well as child-care workers, by March 17, with the first doses set to be delivered to 2A patients by March 22, he said.

Because a fairly small portion of the population is eligible for the vaccine under phase 2A, the state is preparing to move quickly into phase 2B. Those in phase 2B will be able to start booking appointments by March 22, with their first doses being delivered as early as March 25, Sununu said.

Phase 2A covers approximately 75,000 people, while 2B covers around 200,000, according to the state's vaccination plan.

"If we get more and more vaccine, there is still an opportunity for some of these dates to change, to even move up further," Sununu said. "But right now, we feel very confident that we can meet these dates, we can meet these goals. There's a lot of availability, and we just don't want to slow down."

Sununu said a recent directive from the White House to prioritize teachers in the vaccine schedule did not factor into the decision to launch phase 2A ahead of schedule. However, state officials said as recently as Wednesday that they planned to open registration for school staff at the end of March, with plans to roll the vaccines out for those workers in early April, according to NHPR.

The last two phases of the state's vaccine rollout plan — 3A and 3B — were originally slated to launch in May. With phases 2A and 2B launching sooner than anticipated, it's unclear whether the last two phases will also be moved up.

Phase 3A covers those who are under 50 and at a moderate risk of developing severe symptoms related to COVID-19, and 3B opens vaccination up to the general public.

To date, 340,000 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in New Hampshire, with 235,000 people receiving their first dose and 105,000 receiving a second, according to Beth Daly, chief of the N.H. Bureau of Infectious Disease Control — about 17 percent and 8 percent of the population, respectively.

Anyone who is eligible to sign up for a vaccine, or will become eligible in the coming weeks, can set an appointment online by going to vaccines.nh.gov.

Mia Summerson can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1435, or msummerson@keenesentinel.com. Follow her on Twitter @MiaSummerson