Vaccine Availability

Over the next few months, New Mexico will receive limited supplies of COVID-19 vaccine. The entire Phase 1 (1a, 1b, 1c) of vaccine distribution in the United States will be reserved for specific populations while supplies are limited. During Phase 1a, New Mexico and most other states are vaccinating health care workers and residents and staff of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities. We will also be vaccinating other workers who provide direct, in-person services to patients, persons with disabilities, and persons living in congregate care settings who are at risk of exposure to the virus or who handle infectious materials. Tribal communities are also beginning to receive vaccine in Phase 1a and establishing their own allocation priorities. We do not expect to have enough supply to move beyond Phase 1a until early 2021. Click here for a list of personnel included in Phase 1a.

New Mexico will finalize plans for the remainder of Phase 1 after reviewing final recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and considering the amount and pace of distribution of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to New Mexico. Two major groups will be prioritized in future distributions:

• Essential workers identified by the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices
• People most vulnerable to significant disease and death from COVID-19, including seniors, people with medical conditions that make them more susceptible to serious illness and death from COVID-19, and vulnerable communities that have been hit hardest by the disease

It will be several months before we have enough vaccine to vaccinate all New Mexicans in these categories.

We will update this site regularly and open pre-registration for people in these groups as supply allows. Currently, we are opening pre-registration for all health care workers, workers in congregate care settings, and other workers with direct exposure to patients with COVID-19 and potentially infectious materials.

During the first week of distribution, New Mexico provided vaccine to frontline health care workers in hospital settings. The state is now providing vaccine to other frontline health care workers and will expand quickly to all health care workers and other personnel who provide direct, in-person services to patients, persons with disabilities, and persons living in congregate care settings who are at risk of exposure to the virus or who handle infectious materials..

The goal is for everyone to be able to easily get a COVID-19 vaccine when large quantities are available. We expect that several thousand vaccination providers and numerous locations throughout the state will eventually be available, including doctors’ offices, retail pharmacies, hospitals, community locations, and federally qualified health centers.

Regardless of your job, if you work in a health care setting and have direct contact with patients, or if you work in other settings (such as congregate care facilities or in a private home) and have direct contact with people or materials that may be infectious, you may pre-register to receive notice when you will be eligible to receive vaccine. In the coming weeks, after we have more information about the number and timing of vaccine doses New Mexico will receive, this site will enable other New Mexicans to pre-register and receive notice of vaccine scheduling opportunities.

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You qualify for vaccine.

If you work for a hospital:
If you work for a hospital or medical center, your employer will let you know when and where you can receive your vaccination.

If you work for a long-term care facility:
If you work for a long-term care facility, such as a nursing home, assisted living or independent living facility, you will receive your vaccination from the pharmacy that your facility is using to vaccinate residents at that facility. Check with your facility to learn when and where you can receive your vaccine.

If you work in other settings and have direct contact with infectious people or materials:

If you are an EMS, paramedic, hospice or home health care worker, or

If you conduct COVID-19 testing or vaccinations, process COVID-19 test specimens, or provide services or care to COVID-positive individuals in any setting, you can be vaccinated at one of the vaccination event sites established for health care providers.

If you are a health care worker who works with patients who are not known to be COVID-positive:
If you work in an inpatient or outpatient medical center or clinic, pharmacy, dialysis center or other setting where you have direct contact with patients (for example, primary care, family practice, specialty clinic, imaging, dental, ophthalmology, home health), you will be able to sign up to receive vaccine through local providers or at one of the vaccination event sites established for health care providers.