Teachers and school staff in nearly 40 New Hampshire school districts are eligible to begin getting COVID vaccines, and a new registration system will debut when the rest can sign up next week.
The next phase of vaccination signups in New Hampshire got underway on Wednesday.
Residents age 30 to 39 are now eligible for the coronavirus vaccine. Over 35,000 people had scheduled appointments as of 3 p.m.
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Residents age 40 to 49 have been able to register since Monday. The last group ages 16 to 29 can sign up beginning on Friday. Only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for those ages 16 to 18, and sites will note that for that group.
The vaccine has not yet been approved for children under 16.
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"Today’s expansion of eligibility to individuals 30 and older was another massive success," Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. "As we designed VINI, creating an easy-to-use system that allows Granite Staters to complete the registration and scheduling process as quickly as possible was our focus, and on average, users completed the process in well under 15 minutes. Today was another win for New Hampshire."
Since last week, officials added a new online waiting room feature to provide users with an estimate of how long it might take to proceed through the appointment process during especially busy hours.
The state replaced the federal Vaccine Administration Management System with its own VINI sign-up website. Thousands of people experienced problems with the previous system, particularly in scheduling their second doses, and officials had expected the new system to avoid those woes. But many users said they experienced problems when they tried to sign up for vaccine appointments last week.
But everything seemed to go smoothly on Monday.
“We feel fairly confident that everyone should be able to get their first shot by Memorial Day,” Sununu said last week.
