Name: While Lincoln and Omaha work through older residents, any adult can get vaccine in some parts of the state
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While Lincoln and Omaha work through older residents, any adult can get vaccine in some parts of the state

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Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisWhile Lincoln and Omaha work through older residents, any adult can get vaccine in some parts of the stateShare thisIn Lincoln this week, people 59 and older can get vaccinated for COVID-19 at a mass clinic at Pinnacle Bank Arena on Thursday.But in Kearney, people as young as 40 can get a vaccine. In Ainsworth, anyone 30 and up can get vaccinated. And in Beatrice and North Platte, anyone 18 and older can get a shot.Just days after Gov. Pete Ricketts announced that the state would officially move to Phase 2A of its vaccination program, which qualified people 50 and older for a shot, some health districts are going much further down the list.The North Central District Health Department, based in O'Neill, announced Wednesday that people 30 and older were eligible to get vaccinated and can go to walk-in clinics that are being offered this week."I think we just have availability and were able to move down to the next age bracket," said Carol Doolittle, a spokeswoman for the district that encompasses Antelope, Boyd, Brown, Cherry, Holt, Keya Paha, Knox, Rock and Pierce counties.Some areas of the Panhandle Public Health District also are vaccinating people as young as 30."People will likely be surprised how quickly they are being scheduled to get their COVID vaccine now," Kim Engel, Panhandle Public Health District director, said in a Facebook post. "Communities are moving to persons aged 30 and older if they are not already at that point."In the Two Rivers Public Health Department based in Kearney, shots are now available to people 40 and older.Two Rivers and North Central were among the first health districts in Nebraska to start vaccinating people in the 50-64 age group, even before Ricketts made his announcement on Friday. Both also are among the top districts for the percentage of their residents who have been vaccinated. Two Rivers leads the state with more than 21% of people 16 and older fully vaccinated, while North Central is fourth at nearly 19%.The West Central district, which is based in North Platte and covers Arthur, Hooker, Lincoln, Logan, McPherson and Thomas counties, is further back, having vaccinated only about 16.5% of its eligible residents. The Panhandle district is even further behind, at 14.6%.In the district covered by Public Health Solutions, including Gage, Jefferson, Saline, Thayer and Fillmore counties, 17.4% of adults are vaccinated, according to state figures. But anyone 18 and over can sign up for clinics beginning Thursday.Meanwhile, Douglas County, which ranks second in the state with 19.7% of adults fully vaccinated, is offering the vaccine this week only to people 60 and older and said it will move forward in five-year increments, with people 55 and older eligible to start scheduling appointments on Thursday.Lancaster County, with 18.3% of its adults fully vaccinated, has only one first-dose clinic scheduled this week, after doing multiple clinics the past few weeks.Lincoln-Lancaster County Health Director Pat Lopez said Tuesday that the department is being conservative this week to ensure it has enough doses to provide second shots to people in the coming weeks.Dr. Bob Rauner, president of the Partnership for a Healthy Lincoln and chief medical officer of OneHealth Nebraska, said rural areas of the state are able to move into younger age groups faster because they had fewer people per capita in priority groups such as health care workers and educators, and they also have higher percentages of people choosing not to get vaccinated.Lopez on Tuesday said that 75% of people 65 and older have been vaccinated in Lancaster County, which is higher than the overall state rate of 71%. In some counties in the state, those numbers have been closer to 50%.With high vaccine demand locally, the county has been slower than some other areas to move into new phases of the vaccine program.Meanwhile, state officials have not announced plans to change their population-based formula for distributing the vaccine.“We have worked hard as a community to efficiently vaccinate as many members of our community as soon as possible, with an emphasis on those who are most at risk,” Lopez said.Ricketts thus far has chosen to prioritize vaccinations mostly by age and continues to do so, even though some other states, including Iowa, have announced plans to open vaccinations to the general public well before the May 1 goal set by President Joe Biden.In fact, Ricketts so far has been unwilling to commit to having the vaccine available to all eligible Nebraskans by that date.Rauner said there are good arguments for prioritizing vaccines by age, but he has no problem with them being available to young people in some parts of the state."Vaccines sitting in freezers don’t do anyone any good, so I would focus on getting the vaccine into an arm as soon as possible," he said.In Lancaster County, 75% of residents age 65 and over have gotten a shot, an indication of the high interest in vaccinations locally. The percent of residents vaccinated, by age group: 85-and-over: 71.7% 75-84: 75.9% 65-74: 78.3% 55-64: 38.8% 45-54: 29.5% 35-44: 26.8% 25-34: 24.8% 24-and-under: 6.3%Reach the writer at 402-473-2647 or .On Twitter @LincolnBizBuzz.Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.{{title}}{{summary}}You don't have any notifications.Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.Topics

Sign up now to get the most recent coronavirus headlines and other important local and national news sent to your email inbox daily.Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time.Loading&amp;hellp;{{title}}{{description}}{{banner}}(renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax){{tagline}}{{special_title}}{{html}}You are the owner of this article.You have permission to edit this article.© 2022 Lee EnterprisesShare ThisWhile Lincoln and Omaha work through older residents, any adult can get vaccine in some parts of the stateShare thisIn Lincoln this...

While Lincoln and Omaha work through older residents, any adult can get vaccine in some parts of the state

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