D.C. expanded vaccine eligibility to new groups of essential workers on Thursday, which means that grocery store workers, social service outreach workers, manufacturing workers, and food packaging workers are now eligible for vaccines in the District.

Beginning Thursday evening at 6 p.m., these workers, along with seniors and health care workers, will be able to book appointments online or over the phone.

The city has been receiving more vaccine doses from the federal government, but local leaders have emphasized that supply is nowhere close to meeting demand. And while there have been some recent signs of increased availability — earlier this week, for example, Howard University Hospital’s vaccination clinic still had appointments available — appointments have been getting claimed within hours and, sometimes, mere minutes. DC Health’s available appointments for eligible seniors and health care workers were fully claimed in less than 15 minutes last Friday morning.

About 37% of D.C. residents over 65 years old have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, and DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt has predicted that 70% of eligible seniors will have the vaccine by the end of the month.

But the distribution of vaccines has been unequal. A disproportionate share of the doses have gone to residents in wealthier and whiter areas of the city, while seniors in the majority-Black wards where the most people have died from the coronavirus have gotten fewer vaccines.

In recent weeks, officials have tweaked the rollout in an attempt to address these inequities. They stood up a pilot vaccination clinic for 200 seniors at the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Southeast D.C. as part of a “Faith in the Vaccine Program” organized by DC Health, the Leadership Council for Healthy Communities, and the Black Coalition Against COVID.

D.C. Health has also started reserving the appointments that come online on Thursdays for residents of “priority zip codes,” which are areas of the city in Wards 5, 7, and 8 where fatalities from the virus are higher and residents have been getting fewer vaccines.

In response to criticism that its sign-up process privileged those with Internet access, DC Health also increased staffing at the vaccine registration call center and set aside appointments specifically for people who call in over the phone.

And this Thursday and Friday, DC Health will open up registration for appointments at 6 p.m. instead of its usual 9 a.m. time. On Thursday, Feb. 25 and Friday, Feb. 26, the appointments for eligible residents will open at 9 a.m. — and the city will alternate going forward.

DC Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt has said her department received criticism about the timing of appointments.

“Initially, we got a lot of feedback, often not positive, about the standing time about when we release appointments,” Nesbitt said at a press conference last week. “9 a.m. doesn’t work for everybody. We have people who have jobs that they can’t come off of their job assignment to go to the website and claim appointments, and so we’re going to attempt to be flexible for that.”

D.C. will also be adjusting its registration process further next month. Once the changes go into effect (officials have not announced when exactly that will be), residents who pre-register on DC Health’s website will be notified and given a 24-hour window when they can sign up for an appointment, instead of being expected to be online or on the phone exactly when appointments open up to secure one.

Below is the full list of groups eligible for vaccines in D.C. as of Thursday. Health care workers, residents aged 65 and older, grocery store workers, health and human services and social service outreach workers, people who work in manufacturing, and people who work in food packaging are able to make appointments through DC Health’s website and call center. The rest of the groups are being provided with vaccines through other venues.

• Health care workers
• Members of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department
• Residents of long-term and intermediate care facilities, community residential facilities and group homes
• Residents aged 65 and older
• People experiencing homelessness (Vaccines are being provided through Unity Health Care at congregate shelters)
• Members of the Metropolitan Police Department
• Teachers and staff working in person at DCPS schools and public charter schools and independent schools
• Department of Corrections employees and incarcerated people in DOC custody
• Certain government operations personnel
• Licensed child care providers
• Grocery store workers
• Health and human services and social services outreach workers
• People working in manufacturing
• People working in food packaging