Mississippi residents 65 and older can get COVID-19 vaccine

Starting today, Mississippi residents 65 and older as well as those with pre-existing conditions will now be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

The announcement comes less than a week after the state made vaccinations available for Mississippians ages 75 and older.

Mississippi set up drive-thru sites for vaccinations across the state. The vaccine is also available at some private clinics.

That means the vaccine is available to health care workers, those 65 and older, and individuals with health conditions.

When it comes to how slow the distribution process has been going, Reeves had this to say. “The pharmacy program is going too slowly in virtually every state. So, I’ll begin with that. The number of trained personnel that is going into our facilities to do the inoculations is not adequate to quickly get them distributed.”

Dr. Thomas Dobbs said, “The senate public health committee has had a couple of hearings on this exact same issue because of the concern. Hopefully they’re going to ramp up where they can but, there are a lot of facilities that aren’t scheduled to get their first visit until February. The latest one is February 11th which is longer than anticipated. There is an option to disenroll by facility and we can make that vaccine available through another mechanism.”

Reeves said teachers and first responders will be on the list of those who will become eligible next.