Thousands More Oklahomans Eligible For COVID-19 Vaccine Monday

As more COVID-19 vaccine shipments arrive in Oklahoma, tens of thousands more people will become eligible to be vaccinated on Monday.

State leaders said they're ready to start vaccinating people in the rest of phase two, starting Monday.

"Homeless shelters, public and private state and municipal prisons and jails, certain critical manufacturing or work facilities with limited social distance capacity," Deputy Health Commissioner Keith Reed said.

Reed said that group also includes public transit, public health staff and city, state and county government leaders. Those groups make up about 40,000 people. They expect they'll finish vaccinating all teachers by the end of this month.

Nearly 1.2 million vaccines have been administered in Oklahoma. More than 426,000 Oklahomans have gotten both doses.

Reed said the state got a shipment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Wednesday and they are already administering it. For now, he said they plan to move to phase three in early April.

"While we continue our efforts with comorbidities and 65-plus through the medical system, those settings, hopefully we can through the public health, large pod systems, that we can continue to move through these groups and capture the next ones down the line pretty quick," Reed said.

State health leaders encourage anyone who's eligible, to get the vaccine. They say they understand some people want to wait until more vulnerable people get theirs first, but there is going to be plenty to go around.