California vaccine eligibility to be expanded to ages 16 to 64 with underlying health conditions

California is expanding the list of people eligible for the coronavirus vaccine by an additional 4 to 6 million people.

State Health Director Dr. Mark Ghaly said on Friday that as of March 15, people aged 16 to 64 who are severely disabled and those with health problems that put them at high risk can get in line for injections.

Among those included are people with certain types of cancer, heart, lung and kidney diseases, as well as pregnant women, those with Down syndrome, organ transplant recipients and severely obese people.

California has suffered from a shortage of vaccines and Ghaly acknowledged that he is not sure how long it will take for the federal supply of vaccines to meet demand.

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The state memorandum says providers can use their judgment “to vaccinate 16- to 64-year-olds who are considered to be at the highest risk of COVID-19 morbidity and mortality as a direct result of” a number of various medical conditions.

This represents a significant expansion of the population in the state eligible for the vaccine. Currently, eligibility is limited to people aged 65 and over, healthcare professionals and residents and employees in long-term nursing facilities.

It comes at a time when the supply of vaccines is very limited across the state. In Los Angeles County, for example, next week most vaccination sites will be limited to providing second doses, not first doses of the vaccine.

Los Angeles County is receiving an average of about 200,000 doses of vaccine per week, which is much less than the ability of various locations in the county to vaccinate 600,000 per week, county health officials said.

If the vaccine’s eligibility is expanded without additional supply, officials say it will be much more difficult to meet demand.

“We will definitely need a larger supply of vaccine,” said Dr. Paul Simon, director of science for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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