50-plus eligible for vaccine
However, supplies of doses are still limited
The state of California has mandated that all residents at least 50 years of age will be eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccine as of April 1, but local health officials said the current supply of doses is still limited.
“Eligibility doesn’t mean availability,” said Mendocino County Public Health Officer Dr. Andy Coren when asked Tuesday how quickly people 50 and above could expect to receive a vaccination. Coren said that due to limited supply of vaccines, the county is still focused primarily on providing second doses to residents this week, but that “starting mid-april, we expect to be getting more and more doses” delivered.
According to a press release from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, “the supply of vaccines is expected to significantly increase in the coming weeks, (and) the state is expanding vaccine eligibility to more Californians. Starting April 1, individuals aged 50+ will be eligible to make an appointment, and individuals 16+ will be eligible to make an appointment to be vaccinated starting on April 15.”
The release notes that “based on the current estimates, California expects to be allocated approximately 2.5 million first and second doses per week in the first half of April, and more than 3 million doses in the second half of
April. California currently receives about 1.8 million doses per week. The state has the capacity to administer more than 3 million vaccines per week, and is building the capacity to administer 4 million vaccines weekly by the end of April.”
Coren has previously estimated that if supply were not constrained, county health officials
and their partners such as Adventist Health, the city of Ukiah and local health clinics could administer approximately 10,000 vaccine doses a week. For the week ending March 26, the county reported receiving 3,540 doses and administering 2,738.
At the last meeting of the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors, 3rd District Supervisor John Haschak asked Coren: “If we start getting unlimited supply of vaccine in May, what do you see as the timeline for getting everyone vaccinated who wants to be vaccinated? Would it take a month? A week?”
“Well, it won’t be a week, and I’m sure it will be longer than a month,” Coren said. “For the most part, if we really get unlimited vaccines and the immunity holds, and if the community really develops a hunger for the vaccine, and is not stopped by any hesitancy, then it should be sometime this summer that we would achieve a very high level of people being completely vaccinated.”
On Monday, March 29, Mendocino County health officials reported that only four new cases of Covid-19 had been identified in the past three days for a total of 3,939 cases. As of Tuesday, March 30, there were two new cases for a total of 3,941, with one person hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit. Only 33 people were in isolation, and 59 people under quarantine.
To make an appointment to be vaccinated, register at Myturn.