California swings COVID-19 vaccine door open to all Wednesday night

While the country’s expansion is technically only coming into effect on April 15, MyTurn, the state’s online dating service, updated its system around 8pm on Wednesday to target individuals aged 16 and over. welcomed.

“The COVID-19 vaccine is here,” reads the state’s updated website. “And everyone in California will get a turn. Safe, free and effective COVID-19 vaccines are now available to anyone 16 years and older.”

The myriad other institutions that offer appointments for shots – including healthcare providers, healthcare departments, pharmacies, grocery stores and more – have already updated their systems to take the changes into account or will do so in the coming days. You can sign up on a website to make an appointment and find that teens are not yet able to allow times. The process is gradual.

Here you can find a list of each website that you can use to book an appointment.

If you are just eligible and looking for an appointment for the first time, it is important to know that there is more demand than supply. In other words, if you check most of these sites, you are unlikely to find appointments right away. SFGATE has heard from dozens of readers during the explosion of vaccines and they have been telling stories for days, even weeks, about the refreshment of various websites.

Public health officials are asking people to be patient with the process. If you are struggling to be patient while searching for an appointment and can not find one, it will help you understand the demand and supply numbers.

According to the state, there are approximately 18.7 million people aged 16 to 49 living in California. It is the largest age group eligible for the vaccine, with 6.5 million Californians in the age group 65 and older and 7.2 million Californians aged 50 to 64 years.

Although some people in the age group of 16 to 49 years have already been vaccinated because they are health workers or have fallen into another category that they considered earlier, there will still be millions and millions of individuals who can do it. will be vaccinated for the first time from Thursday.

Last week, the state received 2.4 million doses from the federal government, of which 1.5 million doses were allocated for first shots (Pfizer or Moderna) or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot. The projection for the state allocation this week is 2 million doses, of which 1 million will receive the vaccine for the first time. Next week, the state expects to receive 1.9 million doses, and only 956,000 doses will be available to people who want their first chance. (Note: these data were up to date on April 12 and the numbers could be reduced because the United States suspended the use of the J&J vaccine to study serious diseases, affecting six women out of the 6.8 million people doses received across the country.)

“Although we generally receive more than 2 million doses a week, we expect it to take a few more months to vaccinate anyone who wants a vaccine,” said Darrel Ng, a spokesman for the state. COVID-19 vaccine, said.

The state encourages people with health insurance to sign up with their providers. Kaiser sent a message to members on Wednesday to inform them of the expansion of the suitability and limited offer.

“While we have the capacity in California to deliver 720,000 doses of vaccine per week, we can only deliver 500,000 doses – or 69% of our capacity – each week through our current vaccine supply,” the message reads. “Because of this, we want you to know that not everyone can make an appointment right away.”

Kaiser added: “Taking the increase into account will also increase demand for the vaccine to an everyday high. At the same time, vaccine supply is declining significantly due to the reduction in vaccine availability and federal allocations to the state. will receive 20% fewer vaccine doses in the coming weeks. ‘