Sean Avedissian, an assistant professor at UNMC, receives a shot from Rachel Gregory-Sachs, a registered nurse with the Douglas County Health Department, during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for front-line health care workers and emergency personnel.

Federal and state officials announced last week that they would add people 65 and older and some younger people with high-risk medical conditions to the next phase of COVID-19 vaccine recipients.

That next phase initially was to include people 75 and older and essential workers deemed necessary to keep society running.

According to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services’ website, updated late Friday, the list of essential workers includes firefighters, utility workers and teachers as well as people in food processing, transportation, the U.S.

Meanwhile, Nebraskans in the 75-plus group already have been swamping phone lines at local health departments seeking to sign up for the shots.

“It’s a lot of competition,” said Phil Rooney, a spokesman for the Douglas County Health Department.

State health officials cautioned last week that it will take about four months to work through the now-expanded list of people who are next in line for the inoculations.

Angie Ling, incident commander with the state health department, said expanding the next group will not interfere with a smooth rollout of the vaccine.

Ling also noted last week that Nebraska health officials are about two weeks away from starting vaccinations for the next group.

The Douglas County Health Department injected 1,000 doses during its first vaccination clinic last week.

The county’s first phase of vaccinations, which includes health care workers, is expected to continue through January.

The Douglas County Health Department plans to launch its own sign-up site within days, and a state website is expected to launch online registration at the end of the month.

The teacher’s union meets weekly with school officials, who meet weekly with the health department.

“We’re already seeing the impact, and it’s having a demoralizing effect on teachers,” said Royers, noting that Millard has held in-person classes all school year despite the fact that a large number of teachers had concerns about the safety of that approach.

Royers said teachers know county health officials are doing everything they can to get doses out.

The Omaha Education Association last week said Omaha Public Schools teachers are concerned about returning to teaching students in-person five days a week before the teachers have been vaccinated.

Robert Miller, the association’s president, said the organization is encouraging teachers in the 65-and-older group to get the vaccine.

Eric Reeder, president of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 293, which represents food workers in Nebraska, said he’s not happy about the shift.

Food workers have been declared essential in Nebraska and told they need to keep working, he said.

Mark Rupp, chief of the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s infectious diseases division, said the 75-plus group initially was placed in the next phase of vaccination — after health care workers and staff and residents of long-term care facilities — because of their outsized risk of hospitalization and death if infected with COVID-19.

For the 75-plus group, he said, the risk of hospitalization is eight times higher than that of adults 18 to 30.

For those 65 to 74, the risk of hospitalization is five times higher than that of young adults and their risk of death is 90 times higher.Where some see a disconnect, he said, is that the 65-plus group initially was set to get their shots after a fairly large group of essential workers.

Many essential workers are younger and at lower risk of hospitalization or death.

Rauner said it is important for health officials to be open and transparent about such decisions.

Last week’s 104 deaths, however, make it the sixth- deadliest week Nebraska has seen during the pandemic.

Sean Avedissian, an assistant professor at UNMC, receives a shot from Rachel Gregory-Sachs, a registered nurse with the Douglas County Health Department, during a COVID-19 vaccination clinic for front-line health care workers and emergency personnel