CONCORD — All New Hampshire adults will be eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in a matter of weeks, Gov. Chris Sununu said Thursday.
“We don’t have a firm date on that but it really is just weeks away that any adult citizen in the state of New Hampshire will be able to go to VINI and sign up for their vaccine,” he said. “Things are very progressing very, very quickly here in the state.”
The state started vaccinations with health care workers and other groups, followed by those ages 65 and up and those with multiple medical conditions. Eligibility expanded last week to include school and child care workers, and anyone age 50 years and older can start signing up Monday.
A new registration system went online Wednesday, and more than 10,000 people signed up in the first 24 hours, Sununu said.
The state hasn’t figured out whether New Hampshire college students from other states will be eligible to get vaccinated here, Sununu said. Residency for voting purposes has been a contentious issue in recent years, with Republicans pushing to prevent out-of-state students from voting, but vaccination remains an open question.
Sununu said officials are still deciding how handle college students, part-time residents and those who may have gotten their first shots in other states but want to get their second in New Hampshire.
“All of that, we’ll really look at in the next couple of weeks and make sure we define it really clearly,” he said.
New Hampshire will get about 20% more money in the latest virus relief package from Washington than it did in the previous round, Sununu said.
The total includes $966 million headed to the state, $457 million for counties and municipalities, $122 million for critical capital projects, $350 million for schools and $100 million for virus testing and vaccine administration, he said.
“I’ve been working with legislative leadership to unpack this, and understand how this money could be spent,” he said. “We all agree, this is a huge opportunity for good, one-time investments that can help decrease costs and property taxes for our citizens.”
Democrats were quick to criticize Sununu for touting federal funding he has said he would’ve voted against. But he said his objection was based on money unrelated to the virus that ended up in the bill.
“My ask of the Senate and Congress, our representatives in Washington, was to fix it. The spending allocation was unfair,” he said. “There’s a lot of spending in there that has nothing to do with COVID, and I just think that should’ve been taken up separately.”