Younger than 50? Here’s when all SLO County adults can get COVID vaccines
Days after San Luis Obispo County announced that residents ages 50 and up are eligible for coronavirus vaccines, California officials say the minimum age of eligibility is dropping once again.
Starting on April 15, all California residents over the age of 16 will be eligible to get coronavirus vaccinations, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The state announced Thursday it would likely be opening up vaccines to California’s entire adult population by the second half of April because health officials expect to get more than 3 million doses per week by that time.
California currently gets about half that, at just about 1.8 million doses per week.
“With vaccine supply increasing and by expanding eligibility to more Californians, the light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter,” Newsom said in a statement to the Sacramento Bee. “We remain focused on equity as we extend vaccine eligibility to those older than 50 starting April 1, and those older than 16 starting April 15.
“This is possible thanks to the leadership of the Biden-Harris Administration and the countless public health officials across the state who have stepped up to get shots into arms.”
Newsom said that vaccine allotment would be refigured based on percentage of population over the age of 16, and not percentage of population that are essential workers and population over 65, as it was previously.
Just under 85% of San Luis Obispo County’s population is 16 or older — totally roughly 240,000 people, according to 2019 census data.
In a news briefing Wednesday, county Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said local demand for COVID-19 vaccines has dropped recently, which allowed the county to open up vaccines to all residents 50 years old and older.
She said San Luis Obispo County was also considering when it would open up vaccine eligibility to others, including adults over age 16, though at the time she did not have a timeline for when that would take place.
She urged everyone to register for an appointment as soon as they are eligible.
“I want to caution our public that really we are only going to be able to dispense with the masks, and visit with all our friends and go to concerts when we get to that place of herd immunity,” Borenstein said. “We still have quite a ways to go.”
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