The COVID-19 Vaccine – Who’s Priority?

Vaccines have arrived and are being administered throughout Wyoming – but are you a priority?

COVID-19 vaccination is proceeding according to a prioritized list of people and professions laid out by the state. As expected, the highest priorities are the frontline medical workers who have been battling the pandemic from the beginning.

Park County Public Health Officer Dr. Aaron Billin published the Wyoming Department of Health’s prioritized list on Facebook. It reads as follows:

1. Hospital staff — direct inpatient care staff and emergency department (ED) staff, including providers working temporarily at the hospital
2. EMS personnel /Fire Dept. personnel that are EMTs
3. Healthcare Providers in Long-term Care and Assisted Living facilities
4. Public Health Nursing staff and other providers administering vaccines to critical populations in Phase 1a
5. Tribal Public Health and healthcare providers receiving vaccine through Indian Health Services
6. PHN and HCPs who regularly conduct COVID sample collection
7. Inpatient/residential Behavioral Health Facility HCPs
8. Urgent care and other medical clinics
9. Law Enforcement — patrol officers and prison officers on the city, county, state and federal levels
10. Licensed/credentialed medical and dental direct care staff working in other locations who have regular exposure to potentially positive COVID-19 patients or infectious material
11. Nurses and other staff at Public Health Nursing offices and local health departments
12. Residents and staff of long-term care and assisted living facilities not already vaccinated
13. Home health healthcare providers- including Aging network in-home providers
14. School nurses
15. Public Health Laboratory and other laboratories – any staff conducting COVID-19 testing if not already included in the above groups
16. Pharmacy staff
17. Other healthcare facility staff – ancillary support staff who have regular exposure to potentially positive COVID-19 patients or infectious material, including supporting staff from out of state

If your profession isn’t listed, it means that you will be waiting some time before the vaccine becomes readily available to you.

975 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine were delivered to Cody on Dec. 15. Cody was one of the five Wyoming areas to receive the initial vaccine shipments from the state. The others were Casper, Cheyenne, Gillette, and Jackson.

There’s no word on when other Wyoming cities and towns will receive vaccine shipments, but it may be some time.

Pfizer’s vaccine is administered in two separate shots. Once the prioritized personnel across the state receive their initial shot, they’ll need to get their second dose within 21 days for the vaccine to achieve its full potency.

This is still very early into Phase 1 of the phased approach for vaccination, developed on the state and national levels. Phase 1 was specifically designed with a limited supply and maximum coverage in mind.

Once these priority and high-risk individuals are immunized and more doses are produced, the COVID-19 vaccine will be more readily available to everyone in Wyoming and elsewhere.