65- to 69-year-olds eligible for COVID vaccine beginning Monday

More COVID-19 vaccine is becoming available to more Louisiana people in more locations as statistics indicate the approaching end of the state’s coronavirus surge.

But Gov. John Bel Edwards warned Thursday that people must change the way they enjoy the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras this year if the state is to avoid a fourth wave of COVID-19.

“We should all be mindful that gatherings, that travel, that activities, especially indoors for pro-longed period of time, cause more people to contract COVID,” Edwards said at a Thursday press conference in Baton Rouge. “And when that happens, more people go to the hospital, and more people die.”

The news from Thursday’s event:

—Beginning Monday, people 65 and over become eligible to make appointments to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. The minimum age has been 70 in Louisiana.

The original guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for an age minimum of 75, but Louisiana established a younger minimum. Statistics showed 70 was “the line of demarcation” beyond which the risk of COVID increased sharply, Edwards said.

Shortly before President Donald Trump left office, the CDC changed its guidance to lower the minimum age to 65, and Louisiana is following suit.

“Because the supply of the vaccine … to the state is increasing,” Edwards said, “I’m much more comfortable going down to age 65 and older.”

The move adds about 250,000 people ages 65-69 to vaccine eligibility.

Also newly eligible for vaccinations are emergency responders and law enforcement officers, and members of the state’s Unified Command Group. Edwards is a member of that group and said he will be vaccinated next week.

“I’m looking forward to it,” the governor said.

Sign language interpreters who work with the hearing-impaired at vaccination sites will now themselves be eligible for vaccinations.

—Walmart pharmacies will become part of the vaccination network next week. Fifty-seven Louisiana Walmarts will soon receive a total of 14,000 doses of vaccine weekly.

The vaccine doses will come from the Long-term Care Partnership allocation, under which pharmacies received vaccine for nursing home residents. The partnership doesn’t need the 14,000 doses to fulfill its mission, Edwards said.

Walmart pharmacies will receive a smaller amount of vaccine next week to test the new program. Edwards said.

The state has also learned that its allocation of the Moderna two-dose vaccine will be increased by 5%. That’s on top of the recent announcement that Louisiana’s allocation of Moderna and Pfizer vaccine is rising from 58,000 doses to 67,000 doses weekly.

The next big jump in vaccinations could come from federal emergency use authorization of a vac-cine being tested by Johnson & Johnson. Approval of that company’s one-shot vaccine could make mass vaccination sites possible, Edwards said.

Under the current allocation, mass vaccinations would require stockpiling vaccine doses in ad-vance, slowing vaccinations to high-risk people, Edwards said. But he believes the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be distributed in addition to the Moderna and Pfizer allocations.

And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be a good candidate for mass vaccinations because it requires only one dose, so “you don’t have to have a relationship with the people getting vac-cinated so you can get them back 21 days later or 28 days later.”

The network of providers statewide now includes nearly 2,000 enrolled providers, more than 400 of which are now doing vaccinations. Louisiana is in a good position to escalate vaccinations rap-idly when more vaccine becomes available, Edwards said.

—The waning of the third COVID wave is becoming evident in hospitalizations. The number of COVID-positive people in hospitals fell by 91 to 1,295 Thursday. In early January, more than 2,000 Louisiana people were hospitalized for COVID treatment.

But the number of daily deaths, a lagging indicator, remains high. Edwards said 1,000 Louisiana people have died of COVID-related causes in three weeks.

In that time, the number of fatalities confirmed to be or probably COVID-related in St. Mary, St. Mar-tin and Assumption has risen from 227 to 253.

Edwards urged people to avoid gatherings among people from different households during the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras. He continues to attribute the surge in COVID cases and fatalities since early December to holiday activities that ignored COVID mitigation measures.