Hawaii vaccines for 16+ starting Monday, April 19

Starting Monday, April 19, all Hawai‘i residents age 16+ will be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. This means 300,000 people will be newly eligible, bringing the total to more than 650,000 people in our state who are eligible and still unvaccinated.

Limited supply continues to be Hawaii’s biggest challenge to meeting the demand for vaccination. Here at the Hawai‘i Department of Health, we acknowledge how frustrating it is that there is not yet enough vaccine to go around. We are hopeful that our vaccine supply will increase early next month and we can look forward to increasing access.

Hawai‘i surpassed the one million mark of doses administered across the state. That adds up to a significant percent of the small island population who have begun and/or completed their COVID-19 vaccine regimen.

The million shots include both first and second doses and translates into more than a third of Hawai‘i residents with at least one dose and more than a quarter who are fully vaccinated—or will be once they build up immunity over the course of two weeks after the second dose.

This momentum may slow slightly with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine currently on hold while the CDC and FDA investigate safety concerns. And demand will ramp up considerably this coming Monday when Hawai‘i expands eligibility to include everyone age 16+ in accordance with President Bidenʻs goal for the country.