SACRAMENTO – California is immediately allowing residents 65 and older to receive coronavirus vaccines, Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday.
The move puts older people in line before emergency workers, teachers, childcare providers and food and agriculture workers, even when counties complain that they no longer have enough doses for everyone.
“There is no higher priority than distributing these vaccines efficiently and equitably as soon as possible to those facing the most serious consequences,” said Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement. “For those who are not yet entitled to vaccines, it is their turn. We are doing everything we can to bring more vaccines to the state ”.
While health care workers and those in nursing homes and other congregated living facilities can still be vaccinated, state officials are expanding the program to those 65 and older because they are at the greatest risk of being hospitalized and dying.
California has seen cases of viruses and hospitalizations exploding since Thanksgiving, although in recent days the numbers have declined.
“With our crowded hospitals and crowded ICUs, we need to focus on vaccinating Californians who are most at risk of being hospitalized to relieve stress in our health facilities,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and the State Public Health Officer. “Prioritizing individuals aged 65 and over will reduce hospitalizations and save lives.”
The measures follow recommendations from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But that happens after members of a state advisory panel fear that adding the elderly will inevitably delay vaccines for others.
Anthony Wright, executive director of the consumer protection group Health Access California, said he is generally in favor of vaccinating older residents, the group most likely to be hospitalized and die of coronavirus. But he was among those who said the expansion could further undermine the state’s already delayed distribution of scarce vaccines.
“This is a very difficult conversation about trade-offs,” he said.
Adding aging “does not mean that we are abandoning our commitment” to those already in line for vaccines, the panel’s co-chair, California surgeon general Dr. Nadine Burke Harris said later. “We are working together to solve several challenges at the same time.”
Newsom also announced a new system to let people know if they are eligible to receive a vaccine, starting next week.
If residents are not yet eligible, the system will allow them to sign up for a text or email notification when they go.
A “second phase” of this system will help counties and cities that have started mass vaccination centers at sports stadiums and fairs, allowing eligible members of the public to schedule their appointments at mass vaccination events.
Newsom set a goal last week to deliver 1 million doses by Friday, in addition to the nearly 480,000 that had been administered last week.
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Associated Press writers Janie Har in San Francisco, Amy Taxin in Orange County, and Don Thompson and Adam Beam in Sacramento contributed.
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This story has been corrected to show that the San Joaquin Valley region, not the entire Central Valley, remains under an order to stay at home.