Vaccine eligibility to be expanded
OROVILLE >> Gov. Gavin Newsom announced COVID-19 vaccine eligibility will be expanded in the coming weeks to all residents 16 and older. Butte County Public Health suggested earlier this week eligibility could expand as early as next week in the county, however, after Thursday’s statewide announcement, the county health department said a decision has not yet been made on the timeline.
Speaking at a press conference Thursday in Orange County, Newsom said the state will open up vaccine eligibility to everyone 16 and older beginning April 15, in addition to those 50 and older becoming eligible on April 1.
Vaccine eligibility in Butte County already includes people 50 and older who live or work in the county, which was announced on Friday, March 19 and took effect immediately. On Tuesday, Butte County Public Health Director Danette York said at the Board of Supervisors meeting the county is considering opening eligibility to everyone 16 and older as soon as next week, “mainly based on how this week’s clinics go.” York said the county has seen a “slight decline” in demand for vaccinations in recent weeks.
“Our clinics are getting full, but not without a lot of effort,” York said Tuesday. “It doesn’t seem like people are calling or scheduling themselves appointments as quickly as they were.”
Following up on York’s comments and the statewide announcement on Thursday, Butte County Public Health Communications Manager Lisa Almaguer said “there has been no decision made at this time” in regards to Butte County’s timeline for expanding eligibility.
“As Danette mentioned, this could happen earlier or now that the state has made this announcement, there’s a chance we may wait until (April 15),” Almaguer said in an email Thursday. “Either way, we support expanding eligibility and, as always it is based on supply and continuing to receive allocations to meet the demand.”
In a separate video posted Thursday on Butte County Public Health’s Facebook page, Almaguer reported Butte County has been allocated 110,545 vaccines from the state. The county has received 100,395 doses, with 78,754 of them having been administered. A total of 30,369 people have completed the full vaccination cycle.
The current allocation includes a small number of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single- dose shot, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that require two shots. The Johnson & Johnson allocation Butte County has received is currently too small to use for community vaccination clinics.
“These are early allocations and they’re small. They’re not enough to include or use for the larger community-based clinics, which vaccinate up to 1,000 people per day,” Almaguer said. “For these early, small allocations, they’ll be used for on- site or smaller mobile clinics until we receive larger allocations.”