While California’s supply of COVID-19 vaccine remains tense for now, Gavin Newsom on Friday said he believes the state can make the shots available to all in early May.
“We expect within 5½ weeks where we can take virtually all the tigers away and make vaccines available to everyone across the spectrum, as the supply will increase exponentially,” Newsom said during an information session in the Bay.
The governor has not elaborated on the timeline, but it joins previous federal guidance on the expected availability of and access to the vaccine.
President Biden said last week that restrictions on who could make a COVID-19 vaccine appointment would be lifted nationwide by May 1, as supply is expected to be sufficient to meet demand.
The promise of heightened supplies is music to the ears of public health officials in California and across the country as providers rush to put as many doses into their arms as quickly as possible and to stem any possible new coronavirus wave.
Even now, California is already seeing noticeable progress in vaccine deployment.
In the past six days, the six highest one-day totals are in terms of shots being released around the world, according to data compiled by The Times. During that time alone, approximately 2.35 million doses were administered in California, including Thursday 344,489 and Friday 387,015.
To date, 23.5% of California residents have received at least one vaccine dose – a percentage that ranks 33rd out of all states and U.S. territories, according to data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
By comparison, 31.4% of New Mexico’s population received at least one shot, just like 29.6% of Alaskans and 29% of South Dakota residents.
California measures better compared to some more populous states. As of CD, 24.3% of residents received one shot in Pennsylvania, 24.2% in New York, 22.2% in Florida and 20.9% in Texas.
“We do not have enough vaccines. “I can double the capacity today if you get the vaccines for me,” said Eric Garcetti, Mayor of Los Angeles. Said Friday during an interview with dr. Howard Koh, a professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health.
LA officials have expressed optimism that the vaccine supply will grow in the coming weeks, especially as the transport of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is interrupted start by regularly raising production issues.
“We expect to receive much larger quantities of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of this month,” said Dr. Paul Simon, chief scientific officer at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said Friday.
The province expects to receive somewhere in the region of 280,000 doses next week, with only 6,000 of them Johnson & Johnson, he said during an information session.
Nearly half of all California residents – including adults 65 and older, health workers, educators, people locked up or living in homeless shelters, essential workers such as those in the food or emergency services, public transportation and caregivers, and residents 16 and older with disabilities or underlying health conditions – are already eligible for the vaccine. However, the list is not exhaustive, as the state still offers specifications for those who qualify under the various categories.