ATLANTA — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp announced additional groups will be eligible for receiving the COVID vaccine beginning Monday, March 8. With the new groups coming online, it can sometimes be difficult to determine exactly where in line you may fall.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health, here's a full breakdown of who in Georgia is eligible to receive the vaccine.
Previously:
Prior to this point, these groups have been eligible to receive the vaccine:
- Healthcare workers (physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, EMS personnel, environmental services, etc.)
- Residents and staff of long-term care facilities
- Adults aged 65+ and their caregivers
- Law enforcement, firefighters, first responders|
Starting Monday, March 8:
Beginning Monday, in addition to the groups listed above, the following groups will be eligible to receive the COVID vaccine:
- Educators and staff (Pre-K, K-12, DECAL licensed or exempt childcare programs)
Adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their caregivers
- Intellectual Disability is a disability characterized by significant limitations in both intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. This disability originates before the age of 22.
- A developmental disability is a physical or mental impairment that happens before the age of 22, is expected to last a lifetime, and impacts at least three activities of daily living. Activities of daily living include self-care; receptive and expressive language; learning; mobility; self-direction; capacity for independent living; and economic self-sufficiency.
Parents of children with complex medical conditions who are at high risk for COVID complications:
- Malignancies requiring active treatment
- Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) including organ transplant (bone marrow or solid organ) within 2 years
- Critical congenital heart disease
- Asthma (moderate to severe)
- Sickle cell disease
- Diabetes
- Obesity (BMI >95%)
- Cystic fibrosis
- Significant neurologic injury or condition (e.g. hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy, traumatic brain injury, congenital anomaly, acute flaccid myelitis) with functional/developmental impairment (e.g. cerebral palsy, developmental disability, prematurity, mitochondrial disease)
- Technology dependence (e.g. BiPAP, trach)
Those who are not covered under these categories can register at the Georgia Department of Public Health's MyVaccineGeorgia website for email updates and learn when they will be eligible to receive the vaccine.
The state has a total of nine mass coronavirus vaccination sites across the state. Four of them are open now -- in Fulton, Bibb, Dougherty and Habersham counties. The remaining five sites -- in Chatham, Ware, Washington, Bartow and Muscogee counties -- will open on March 17.
On Friday, the White House announced that Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta will be opened as an additional mass vaccination site, to be operated by FEMA.