According to a Thursday night update of Bloomberg’s COVID-19 vaccine tracker, there is only one state in the country that is doing a worse job than California in administering its available COVID-19 doses.
California currently ranks 49th out of 50 states with a usage rate of 27.5%, beating only Alabama, which is ranked last with a negligible usage rate of 21.2%. For reference, the national usage rate is 38.8%, which means that California is two digits behind the rest of the country.
Golden State is in the same stadium as Georgia (48th place with a 28.0% usage rate) and Virginia (47th place with a 28.4% rate), and is dramatically behind the other larger states. Of the six largest states in the country, California is the only one with a usage rate below 40.0%:
-California 27.5% (49º)
-Texas 49.6% (eighth)
-Florida 43.0% (23º)
-New York 41.0% (26th)
-Pennsylvania 40.0% (27th)
-Illinois 43.2% (22º)
The five states with the highest usage rates are West Virginia (78.6%), North Dakota (71.3%), South Dakota (61.4%), Rhode Island (57.2%) and Louisiana (54 , 4%).
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Wednesday that his state now allows individuals aged 65 and over to be vaccinated, but the launch is far from smooth.
Counties and health care providers decide who will be vaccinated, and some, including Los Angeles County – the state’s largest county – rejected the governor’s announcement and said that only health professionals can get the vaccine for now, claiming lack of supply.
“We are not done with our health professionals yet,” said LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “We received no response from the state about the availability of the vaccine and how it would be distributed.”
Meanwhile, Orange County has decided to allow residents 65 and older to book appointments on its new Disneyland super site, but its registration site has failed due to high demand.
Many counties are asking the state for more doses before moving on to the elderly. For example, Santa Clara County wants to start vaccinating those 75 and older, but after ordering an additional 100,000 doses, it was told this week that it would receive only 6,000.