Thousands of Hawaii residents who were fully vaccinated against the coronavirus with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are now eligible for booster shots, but the state Department of Health is urging that priority be given to those who still haven’t gotten their first or second doses of a vaccine.

State health officials also recommend that priority for booster shots be given to individuals 65 and older and those ages 50 to 64 who have underlying medical conditions that make them particularly susceptible to severe illness and hospitalization from COVID-19.

Other segments of the population are also eligible for the booster shots, but the Department of Health says providers should only consider administering doses to those groups if there is enough supply.

Those groups include people ages 18-49 with underlying medical conditions and people ages 18-64 who are at high risk for occupational or institutional exposure, such as health care workers and teachers.

“As the science and the virus evolves, DOH will continue to make evidence-­based decisions to ensure those at highest risk for severe illness have access to vaccines,” said Health Director Dr. Elizabeth Char in a news release Friday. “We will have enough booster shots for everyone, but please allow those at highest risk for severe illness to receive their shots first. DOH’s first priority will remain encouraging unvaccinated Hawaii residents to complete their primary vaccine series.”

While the Department of Health has issued prioritization guidelines, health officials are relying on providers and the public to voluntarily adhere to them.

“We hope that people will follow it. We are not going to stand at individual vaccination sites and take full medical histories and make people prove things,” said Char during a news conference Friday afternoon. “But we would hope that they would honor that, because at the end of the day, it’s all about keeping our community safe. This is the best way that we are going to be able to accomplish that.”

Char advised that people take their vaccine cards to providers to show that it’s been six months since receiving their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Char said she didn’t have an exact number of how many people are immediately eligible for the boosters. She said that the state currently has 90,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and is waiting to see what the state’s future allocation will be.

“Please keep in mind that we are going to be one of 50 states that’s looking for additional doses of Pfizer, so we are waiting to see what that number turns out to be,” she said.

As of March 24, six months ago, 219,335 Hawaii residents were fully vaccinated, according to state data. It’s not clear what percentage of that population received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine or what percentage qualifies for the boosters under the federal criteria.

Earlier this month the Department of Health said that it had the capacity to administer more than 60,000 doses a week through the state’s current vaccination sites.

Health officials are not planning to stand up new, large-scale vaccination sites as they did in the early days of the vaccine rollout, but say they’re watching the number of people who get boosters and will “adjust accordingly.”

The guidance from state health officials caps a confusing month of conflicting messages from federal officials about who would qualify for booster shots.

President Joe Biden announced last month that the federal government planned to make booster shots available to all fully vaccinated Americans eight months after their last dose. “Just remember as a simple rule, eight months after your second shot, get a booster shot,” Biden said during an Aug. 18 speech from the White House.

But this week federal health agencies approved only an extra dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, while also setting limits on who can get the shots and scaling back the time that has lapsed since the second dose to six months.

That’s significantly increased the number of people in Hawaii who are potentially eligible for the vaccine starting this week.

“The change from the President’s eight month window to the CDC’s six month window is a bit of a curveball,” Brooks Baehr, a spokesman for the Department of Health, said by email.

The state also has to prepare to vaccinate kids between the ages of 5 and 11 who could be eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine toward the end of October.

For now, booster shots have been approved only for people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, but federal agencies are expected to review an extra dose of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in the coming weeks.

The Health Department stressed that giving a Pfizer-BioNTech booster to someone who received the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not authorized or recommended.

“Individuals are still considered fully vaccinated 14 days after their second dose. Booster doses provide additional protection, but the primary two-dose series continues to protect vaccinated individuals against severe illness, hospitalization and death,” according to the Health Department.

A list of medical conditions that can qualify people under age 65 for getting a booster shot can be found on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s website at bit.ly/2XK4yCb.

The list includes cancer, lung diseases, neurological and heart conditions, being overweight and having a history of smoking, among many other conditions.

Health officials urge residents to check with their health care providers if they are unsure whether they qualify for a booster shot.

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Getting a boost

The state Department of Health has prioritized the following groups for getting the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shots:

>> Everyone 65 and older

>> People ages 50-64 with underlying medical conditions

Federal agencies also have approved boosters shots for the following groups, though the state has not given them priority:

>> People ages 18-49 with underlying medical conditions

>> People ages 18-64 who are at high risk of being exposed to the virus

On the net: Qualifying medical conditions can be found on the CDC website at bit.ly/3i7hw4b.