President Biden plans vaccinations to be open to all American adults by May 1. A few states have already opened their vaccines to all adults, though not yet Wyoming. Students may receive their vaccine then.
Albany County Public Health announced starting on March 8, vaccination phase 1c and priority group 1 through 3 can begin receiving vaccinations. This includes people who are homeless, people living in prisons or jails, and critical infrastructure workforce including most university employees.
Professor in photography, Bailey Russel, said, “I was vaccinated at Walgreens and it was a very quick and efficient process, light years better than friends and family in other states who I have spoken to. While Albany County seemed to be very far behind other counties and other states in getting it’s vaccines, we seem to have caught up nicely in the last few weeks.”
Russel said most of the professors he knows have already been vaccinated and he is optimistic that a high percentage of professors who can get the vaccine will.
Students from out of state should also be able to get the vaccine soon, despite previous guidelines making out of state residents ineligible.
Mary Beth Bender, Primary care nurse practitioner at Student Health, said “cases are down and we are hoping that trend continues.”
Bender said availability of vaccinations to non-employees or students without underlying health conditions is left up to a number of factors.
Bender said the 1c phase that is currently being vaccinated is a big group and it could take a while to get through everyone who is eligible.
“We are also hopeful to receive the one-dose vaccine, which will be ideal for our student population because they’re not having to worry about coordinating that second dose,” Bender said.
According to the Wyoming Department of Health, approximately 12.7% of the Wyoming population has been fully vaccinated, and 20.1% has received at least one dose.
The Critical Infrastructure Workers who qualify are physically unable to work remotely.
“These workers generally include those involved with: critical manufacturing; energy; legal; communications and information technology, financial services; chemical workers; other community or government based operations and essential functions; water and wastewater; transportation and logistics; law enforcement, public safety, and other first responders; education; food and agriculture; public works and infrastructure support services; hygiene products and services, residential/shelter facilities, housing and real estate, and related services; hazardous materials; healthcare and public health; commercial facilities; defense industrial base,” according to the Albany County Public Health website.
If you think you qualify in priority group 1-3 in phase 1c, the university encourages you to call Albany County Health at 307-766-8222 to schedule your vaccination appointment.
There is no specified university vaccination site, though the university is partnering with Ivinson Hospital and Albany County Public Health to broadly vaccinate those in the county.
If you have already been vaccinated, UW Student Health requires students to update their HCM profile via an online student health portal.
