San Diego County health officials announced Wednesday that vaccinations of teachers and other essential workers will begin Saturday because most seniors have received a dose and that appointments are opening.
Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said vaccinations are being extended to the next group in Phase 1B, which includes teachers, school staff, child care workers, emergency services staff and employees in food and agriculture.
Speaking at the country’s weekly press conference, Fletcher said there are about 500,000 people in the next group and warns that it will take a while before appointments are easy to plan.
“There will not be half a million appointments available,” he said. “So we need people to be patient.”
Fletcher said the province keeps 20% of the new doses in reserve to vaccinate K-12 teachers and staff. These appointments are arranged by the school districts.
Anyone else in the next Phase 1B category can make an appointment through the province’s online list of vaccination sites or MyTurn.ca.gov from the state.
Fletcher said 68% of seniors in the province have received at least one dose, and the province will continue to encourage them to be vaccinated.
He said Cal Fire teams would be sent to agricultural areas after the province was vaccinated to vaccinate hard-to-reach groups.
So far, a total of 526,242 provincial residents have received at least one dose and 196,079 people – 7.3% of the population – have been fully vaccinated.
“Even with the disruptions in the last few weeks in the availability and supply of vaccines, we are getting vaccines at a very impressive rate,” Fletcher said.
He expressed optimism that the loads of vaccines will be picked up later this week and will soon be supplemented with a new vaccine from Johnson & Johnson.
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