Today DOH issued an executive summary of its updated COVID-19 vaccination plan to provide a roadmap of how the vaccine will eventually be made available to all Hawai‘i residents by the end of summer.

The prioritized system ensures the vaccine is distributed and administered in an orderly, safe and efficient manner, starting with prioritized groups based on updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). 

“We are continuing to devote our full attention to ensuring we have a robust and orderly rollout of our vaccination program,” said Dr. Libby Char, DOH Director. “We’ve integrated the ACIP’s allocation and prioritization recommendations into our updated plan to reach those in high-risk groups as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

“Our plan prioritizes the vaccine for those who come into direct contact with the virus and those who are at higher risk for severe COVID-19 infections, and disability or death,” Dr. Char said. “The safe and orderly rollout ensures we operate efficiently to minimize waste of the dosages and to enhance patient safety.”

The updated plan breaks down the rollout of the vaccine into two major phases. The first phase includes three priority groups.

Phase 2 will cover the rest of the population, which includes all persons 16 years and older who were not in other categories. Phase 2 is projected to begin in early summer 2021, depending on production and federal allocation of doses through Operation Warp Speed.

Based on the estimated number of people in each of these priority groups, 73% of Hawaii’s population will receive the vaccination by the completion of all of the categories in Phase 1. The updated plan also includes a number of contingencies:

To view the executive summary of the updated COVID-19 vaccination plan, click here.

More details available in the full news release here: https://hawaiicovid19.com/hawaii-department-of-health-issues-updated-covid-19-vaccination-plan/