Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that it is eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, which takes effect immediately.
All individuals aged 16 and over who live or work in the country can now be vaccinated, said dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the COVID-19 testing and vaccination officer, said. People can plan vaccinations through sccfreevax.org.
The province is receiving a “significant” increase in federal government vaccine supplies, in addition to the state grant, Fenstersheib said.
“We now have enough vaccine to quickly achieve our goal of protecting our entire community from COVID-19,” Fenstersheib said.
Following pressure from the Bay Area Congressional delegation, the federal government sent Santa Clara County nearly 300,000 doses. On top of that, these are the approximately 70,000 doses that the country receives from the state weekly.
Thanks to the increased supply of vaccines, the country does not have to cancel any appointments due to the unexpected vaccination of Johnson & Johnson.
“We have seen that our demand has outweighed our capacity for a long time, and now we will be able to meet that need,” Fenstersheib said.
In San Mateo County, the Johnson & Johnson news was a blow. The country already had little vaccine this week.
“We do not have the first doses this week,” supervisor David Canepa said. “We have two doses for two days.”
The province will suspend use of the J&J vaccine until it is clear from the FDA.
“It’s a bit of a nightmare to be honest with you,” Canepa said. “We essentially had this tremendous hope.”
The outage will also mean when San Mateo County qualifies for everyone 16 years and older on Thursday, the only real change is that more people will fight for fewer appointments.