Californians 65 and older can begin vaccinations immediately after the state agreed on Wednesday to a major expansion in its coronavirus immunization efforts, in part in hopes of containing a violent increase that continues to tighten hospitals.
The announcement came in the wake of federal guidance on Tuesday that states make vaccine doses available to a wide range of older adults, who are at the greatest risk of becoming seriously ill, needing hospitalization, intensive care and dying.
Although numbers for hospitals and intensive care have stabilized somewhat in California last week, many counties still carry a huge patient load and deaths from COVID-19 are increasing. Immunizing older adults will not have an immediate impact on the sudden increase, but it may help to relieve some of that pressure in a few weeks, public health officials said.
“The vast majority of hospitalized patients are elderly, and ICU admissions and deaths are happening to the elderly,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, state health officer and director of the California Department of Public Health, during a vaccine advisory committee meeting. “The way we are going to impact the increase is by prioritizing older age groups.”
State health officials said during the meeting that lowering the age to over 65 adds 4.25 million Californians.
Erin Allday and Catherine Ho are writers for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @erinallday, @Cat_Ho