Nebraska Moving to Vaccinate 50-64 Year Olds Statewide

Nebraskans from ages 50 to 64 will be next in line for COVID-19 vaccinations statewide starting Monday.

Gov. Pete Ricketts said the state will issue a new Directed Health Measure effective Monday authorizing all local public health districts to prioritize vaccinating people aged 50 to 64. Until now, the priority has been on those over 65, although officials say some areas of the state ran out of older people who wanted the vaccine. Nine public health districts already have permission to prioritize people under 65 – now, that permission will extend statewide. Ricketts said age has the single biggest correlation with deaths due to COVID. He said people over 65 are the most vulnerable, but those in the next group are still significantly more at risk than younger people.

“Just the cohort 50 to 59 had twice as many deaths – more than twice as many deaths – as everybody 49 years and younger – all those cohorts combined,” Ricketts said at a news conference Friday.

Angie Ling of the Department of Health and Human Services said there are about 350,000 people in the new age group, although about 90,000 of them have already been vaccinated because of the work they do. Ricketts said he didn’t know how long it would be before people age 49 and younger could get priority.

So far, about 250,000 Nebraskans over age 15 have gotten two doses of vaccine, and another 450,000 have gotten one, for a total of about 950,000 shots. The state’s population of people over age 15 is 1.5 million. Officials said a record number of just over 22,000 vaccines were administered Thursday. If that were the daily average, NET News calculates, it would theoretically take just under 100 days to vaccinate everyone who’s eligible. But some people won’t want to be vaccinated, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only one dose, and officials have promised increased production, all of which could speed things up.