Southern Nevadans urged to get vaccine before eligibility expands

Clark County health officials on Wednesday urged eligible residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 now, before shots are offered to a broader swath of the community and appointments potentially become harder to find.

That will begin to happen Monday, when people age 16 to 64 with medical conditions that put them at risk for complications from COVID-19 will become eligible for the vaccine. On April 5, everyone 16 and older will become eligible, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced at an afternoon news conference.

“Don’t wait until the crowds become overwhelming,” JoAnn Rupiper, director of clinical services for the Southern Nevada Health District, said in a news briefing prior to the governor’s announcement. “Even though we’re very busy, we still have appointments open.”

A check of the health district’s appointment portal in the morning found plenty of same-day appointments available. The health district’s Greg Cassell said that appointments typically become filled as the day progresses, with the agency at times contacting hospitality industry representatives and political leaders to help spread the word about availability.

Yet district officials said demand for vaccinations remains high. With the supply of vaccine increasing, vaccination sites are able to administer more shots daily now than they were earlier this year, when there were severe appointment bottlenecks.

Larger vaccination sites have gone from administering 4,000 shots per day to 6,000, Cassell said. On Saturday, the Cashman Center vaccination site administered more than 6,300 shots, and the Las Vegas Convention Center site more than 5,300, he said.

“We’re doing a higher capacity in each location, so, yes, the demand is there,” he said.

This week, pharmacies also began to administer vaccine to to people age 55 to 64 with medical conditions that might place them at higher risk for complications from COVID-19.

Clark County this month also opened up eligibility to those in the hospitality industry, including casino workers, as well as to people in the food service industry, including restaurant workers.

Many other occupational groups already were eligible, ranging from health care and agricultural workers to government employees. Nevadans 65 and older also are eligible based on their age.

The district intends to increase the hours of operation at vaccination sites by shifting personnel away from at least one site for COVID-19 testing. It is working on identifying a contractor to take over operations at a testing site at UNLV, freeing up 50 members of the Nevada National Guard to work at a vaccination site, Cassell said.

Since vaccinations began in mid-December, nearly 477,000 first doses of vaccine have been administered and more than 242,000 second doses through public vaccination sites and pharmacies in Clark County.

The VA Southern Nevada Health Care System also has administered more than 20,000 first doses, almost 13,000 second doses and close to 500 doses of the one-dose Johnson &Johnson vaccine, spokesman John Archiquette said.

From March 10 to 17, health district sites administered nearly 81,000 doses of vaccine — the most in any week to date. In contrast, from Feb. 24 to March 3, the district gave nearly 59,0000 shots. From March 3 to 10, more than 47,000 shots were administered.

“We just want to strongly encourage everybody that is eligible to get out there and get their shot,” Cassell said. “The closer that we get to our goal of herd immunity, we’ll get everybody back to work, get our city back open and provide the protection for our loved ones, our families, our friends and all of our community.”

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Michael Scott Davidson contributed to this report.