BATON ROUGE - Louisiana is lowering the age criteria for COVID vaccine eligibility starting next week.

On Thursday, Governor Edwards announced the state would lower the minimum age for civilians receiving the vaccine from 70 to 65 years old. The governor said the change, which takes effect Feb. 8, would add about 250,000 people to the current pool of eligible recipients. 

Along with changing the age criteria, Louisiana is also adding other essential employees like March/April election workers, law enforcement and members of the state's Unified Command Group.

.@LouisianaGov making changes to current vaccine priority group (Phase 1b, Tier 1)

- Age lowered to 65
- March and April election staff
- unified command group, state and local Covid response teams
- law enforcement

Goes into effect Monday

— Johnston von Springer (@johnstonvon) February 4, 2021

Up to this point, vaccinations in Louisiana have been limited to those in outlined in Phase 1B, Tier 1, which primarily included those 70 years and older and health care workers.  

You can find vaccine locations across Louisiana by clicking here.