Vaccinations take center stage

Correction: Wait lists are only available for those who are already eligible for the coronavirus vaccination. An earlier version of this story contained incorrect information.

Nearly 1,400 people were vaccinated for coronavirus on Saturday, according to Carson City Health and Human Services.

In an interview conducted on Tuesday morning by Douglas County NGBN TV, Public Health Preparedness manager Jeanne Freeman said 1,362 received their first shot.

“The vast majority were seniors,” Freeman said.

The full interview will be shown 6:30 p.m. today at www.ngbndc.tv, on Facebook at ngbndctv or via Roku, Amazon Fire, AndroidTV or AppleTV.

On Jan. 13, residents 70 or older were eligible to receive a vaccination. To be fully effective, two doses are required. Those who were vaccinated on Saturday will return to the Carson Valley Inn in mid-February.

Freeman said Tuesday that appointments for vaccinations will be posted as the health agency receives more doses of vaccines.

She said that she couldn’t predict when the next group of people will be eligible for vaccinations.

“It’s based on the allocation we receive every week,” she said. “We place those orders on Tuesdays and don’t find out what’s coming in until Thursday.”

Freeman said that the agency won’t be able to move to the next group for vaccination until they’ve made significant progress on the current group.

In addition to residents 70 years or older, this group includes educators, childcare workers and higher education staff.

She said that Carson Valley Medical Center, Smith’s, Walgreens and the Douglas County Senior Center have all established wait lists for residents who are eligible.

There are almost 169,000 residents in Douglas, Carson, Lyon and Storey. According to the U.S. Census about 39,000 of those residents are 65 or older.

Freeman encouraged residents to check at www.gethealthycarsoncity.org for vaccination schedules and to sign up.

The Centers for Disease Control reported distributing another 51,075 doses to Nevada as of Tuesday. Up until this week, Nevada was the state with the second lowest number of doses distributed per 100,000. On Tuesday morning, the state moved up two places and is now the fourth lowest number.

The Silver State has administered 164,362 of the 338,025 doses it has received so far.