Missouri teachers, grocery store workers can get vaccinated starting March 15

Missouri will begin vaccinating teachers, grocery store and transportation workers, among others, starting March 15, Gov. Mike Parson announced last week.

The state estimates that opening up COVID-19 vaccines to those in its Phase 1b, Tier 3 category will allow 550,000 more Missourians to be eligible.

The category includes workers in the agriculture, child care, energy and other “critical infrastructure” sectors. It also covers state and local elected officials and judiciary members “required for the continuity of government.”

While Missouri teachers had pushed to be given earlier priority, the move does not move them up in the critical infrastructure category. Kansas this month began rushing to vaccinate teachers in advance of a return to in-person school.

Parson’s decision Thursday was praised by several Missouri education groups.

“Missouri teachers and other school personnel are one step closer to being able to teach without the threat of COVID,” Missouri State Teachers Association spokesman Todd Fuller said in a statement.

Kansas City Public Schools on Wednesday night announced it would begin returning students to the classroom on March 15, beginning with the youngest students, K- 3. The district, which had been all virtual, expects to have all students back in buildings for at least some portion of the school week by early April.

Of the roughly 2.9 million Missourians currently eligible to receive a vaccine, including health care workers, senior citizens and those with certain medical conditions, state officials believe 800,000 remain who are interested but have not yet received a first dose.

They hope to halve that number in the next two and a half weeks before the next phase opens.

While many in the current phases will still be awaiting a vaccine by then, Parson said the state must move forward on the next phase to ensure “a steady flow of people who are eligible and interested in getting vaccinated.”

“This allows the vaccinators across the state to continue vaccinating Missourians without having to wait on those who don’t want one,” he said.

In Kansas City, Truman Medical Center is drawing up a plan for vaccinating teachers, he said.

The state will continue relying on high-capacity hospitals to distribute more than half of its weekly doses, with less than a quarter being handed out through mass National Guard-run vaccination events and smaller amounts going toward local health departments and other clinics.

Some of those distribution methods could change in the next phase as supplies increase.

“As we go to this next phase and as vaccine becomes more available, you’ll see us probably take the National Guard to an area ... let’s just say Kansas City or St. Louis City,” Parson said. “We’ll probably put multiple National Guard units there, we could probably do 6,000 a day. That’s going to be more efficient.”

Parson’s administration has faced criticism for not taking that approach immediately. Within each of Missouri’s nine highway patrol regions, the state has held its mass vaccination events in rural areas because urban residents can seek out the high-capacity hospitals.

But with supplies short, many city residents have driven hours to try to get a vaccine at the mass vaccination events.

Parson maintained Thursday the state is keeping each region’s doses proportionate to their share of the population.

Missouri received 120,000 first doses of the vaccine this week and will receive 128,000 next week. That does not include smaller amounts shipped to pharmacies directly from the federal government.

Twelve percent of Missourians have received the first dose of the vaccine as of this week, trailing the national average of 14%.

Eligible residents can sign up to be notified of opportunities to schedule a vaccine appointment at covidvaccine.mo.gov/navigator.

The Star’s Mará Rose Williams contributed to this story.

This story was originally published February 25, 2021 at 5:26 PM.