UPDATED: Ingham County to Begin Vaccinating Seniors, Essential Workers Including Teachers

Ingham County Health Department will begin Covid-19 vaccinations for individuals who fall into “Phase 1B” on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021, focusing on law enforcement officers, firefighters, shelter workers, teachers and support staff who have direct contact with students in grades pre-K through 12, and people age 70 and older.

The Health Department has booked approximately 10,200 first-dose appointments for people age 70 and older through the end of February and is working to make more appointments available.

People ages 65 through 69 will also be Covid-19 vaccinated as part of Phase 1B, but at a later date. The Health Department cautions that it may take “several weeks or months” to vaccinate all these individuals.

Currently, those who want to receive a Covid-19 vaccine should fill out a form expressing interest and providing so basic information here. The information you provide will be used to determine which phase you fall into. Everyone can fill out this form now.

Following a reader inquiry, ELi contacted Amanda Darche – the Communications Specialist for Ingham County Health Department – to inquire about delays in communication. The volume of emails the department can send each day is limited, so not everyone will receive a confirmation email after submitting this form.

Since all the first-dose appointments for individuals age 70 and older are full, people in that category will not receive a link to make an appointment until more are available. For those who received links but do not see open appointments, keep refreshing your browser. Appointments open up as others cancel.

Ingham County Health Department will contact those who have completed the form when the department plans to begin vaccinating their phase group. At that time, those people will receive a link to schedule an appointment for the vaccine.

Following Phase 1B, the Health Department will vaccinate Phase 1C, which includes people ages 16 to 64 who have underlying health conditions that increase risk for more serious complications from Covid-19. The full list of the conditions that increase risk according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is available here.

Phase 2 will include the rest of the general public. People in that group will most likely will not be vaccinated until spring.

We will have more information on the vaccine and Covid-19 situation in our area later this week.

See all our reporting on Covid-19 here.

This article, originally published on Jan. 9, 2021 at 10:35 a.m., was updated on Jan. 9, 2021 at 7:45 p.m. with additional information from Ingham County Health Department.

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