A teacher measuring a classroom for implementation of Covid-19 social-distancing protocols. Photo Credit: GETTY IMAGES
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel on Sunday recommended the people who should be next in line for Covid-19 vaccination.
The recommendation is part of an effort to reduce deaths and hospitalizations with the limited vaccine supply in early 2021 by making sure the most vulnerable people receive vaccine protection. Among them, people age 75 and older, an age group the virus has devastated. The recommendation also includes teachers, firefighters, police officers and grocery store workers, among others deemed essential to a functioning economy and are most exposed to the virus.
The federal advisory panel also recommended a third group that would follow right after. This group would prioritize persons age 16 and older with a medical condition that makes them vulnerable to the virus, persons between 65-74, and people in the transportation, logistics, water and wastewater, and food service industry.
The V.I. Department of Health has so far received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which has been distributed to frontline workers in the medical field. A batch of the Moderna vaccine, which was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration and cleared for use, is expected to arrive in the USVI this week, according to Dept. of Health Commissioner Justa Encarnacion.
Neighboring Puerto Rico said about 17,800 people were vaccinated as of Friday; the U.S. territory said it has requested 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines but was not expecting to receive all at once.
Meanwhile, a new strain of the virus said to be 70 percent more contagious has been found in the United Kingdom, forcing European Countries to halt travel from England.
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