Contra Costa County on Monday extended its requirements for vaccination on COVID to anyone 50 years and older, regardless of health conditions. This is the second Bay Area province to do so after Solano County took the same step last week.
Contra Costa County, with an estimated population of 1.15 million, is now the largest province in the state increasing admissions to the age of 50 to 64, just a week after the nationwide extension of suitability to residents with ‘ a list of serious health conditions and disabilities. . The change takes effect immediately for the contra-province, thanks to the rising vaccine supply.
“We look forward to the coming months when we can be eligible for vaccine, when everyone and everyone is eligible,” said Diane Burgis, chair of the Board of Supervisors at Contra Costa, in a statement. “More and more doses of vaccine are coming into the country every week and we expect the trend to continue.”
On Monday, the state of Florida did the same to extend admission to the 50+ series, and more provinces are likely to be on the way soon.
Late last week, Gavin Newsom announced that he expects California to be able to open the locks to everyone 16 years and older by the last week of April. He said the requirements for eligibility are due by the end of April, as the vaccine ‘will increase exponentially by then’.
President Joe Biden recently set the May 1 date for qualifying.
Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas cited the “extraordinarily good relations with our hospital providers” in Solano County last week because he was able to extend the qualification to any other Bay Area province – and it helps make the province’s population one of the smallest in the region, with only less than 448,000 inhabitants. As Matyas told ABC 7: “In the past month, we have been able to vaccinate tens of thousands of people every weekend and with that we have been able to move through the levels much faster.”
But everything is not so rosy after the move. As KRON4 reported Monday, Solano County is urgently asking for more state vaccine allocation, citing the fact that it has the third lowest allocation per 1,000 residents of any province in California. Provincial supervisor John M. Vasquez requested the governor’s office and also pointed out that provinces of similar size with a higher median income receive much more vaccine per capita.
Contra Costa County aims to administer 1 million vaccines by July 1, which is expected to cover nearly everyone living or working in the country over the age of 16. As of Monday, the province was halfway to the goal with 515,000 first and second doses administered.
Nationwide, 24% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose, and California is slightly ahead of the national average by 24.9%.
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