County leaders announced on Wednesday that employees in schools, education and day care centers; non-medical emergency responders and workers in the food and agriculture sectors – are eligible for vaccination starting on Saturday.
The chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, Nathan Fletcher, made the announcement regarding Level 2 members in Phase 1B of the vaccine schedule – in the afternoon, at the weekly county coronavirus briefing.
The county said it is expanding the vaccine’s eligibility. Melissa Adan of NBC 7 has more.
Fletcher said the fact that almost 70% of the elderly, as well as residents of specialized long-term nursing centers, have already received their vaccines. As a result, he said, the resulting abundance of available vaccine appointments motivated the change.
“We are beginning to see some slack in the use of the first dose by our elderly people and, therefore, we are prepared starting this weekend – this Saturday – to open vaccines” for the expanded group, said Fletcher.
About half a million county residents would be available for filming as a result of the decision, according to authorities. To date, more than 783,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in San Diego County.
Do COVID-19 vaccines reduce the spread of coronavirus or just hospitalizations? Do you need to get it every year? And can you survive with just one dose? These are just a few of the persistent questions we heard as COVID-19 vaccines were launched across the country. LX News spoke with Dr. Richard Novak, head of infectious diseases at the University of Illinois at Chicago, to find out what doctors know.
The news comes the day the county reported 658 new cases of the coronavirus, a total of 258,463 since the pandemic began nearly a year ago in San Diego.
Authorities are asking residents to remain patient, as the expansion of the vaccine pool is likely to put pressure on both the system for making appointments and the locations that have been set up across the county to administer the vaccines.
Fletcher said officials were creating a “closed” system with the county education department to get K-12 school staff their appointments, with 20% – not 10%, as previously reported – of all the photos apart , dedicated to educators and staff. Appointments would be scheduled through schools, not through the county or the state’s MyTurn online vaccination programmer. He also said that priority will be given to school workers in the communities hardest hit by COVID-19.
Other education workers, including those employed at colleges and daycare centers, will need to schedule appointments through the county or MyTurn. The same is true for farm workers and grocers and other members of the food and agriculture sectors.
Scripps Health has offered to vaccinate officers – including the police – and will work with departments across the county to schedule vaccinations for them, in some cases as early as Saturday.
There is still no date on the schedule for when Level 1B Level 2 members – including people working in transportation and logistics; industrial, commercial, residential and shelter facilities and services; and critical manufacturing – will be eligible for your photos. Also in this layer are people employed in congregational settings, including employees who work with prisoners and homeless people.