SLO County vaccine rate hits nearly 60% as county urges more participation
San Luis Obispo County Public Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said Wednesday that “just shy of 60%” of the eligible community population has received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
That compares to about 64% statewide, she said at a press conference.
“We’re still lagging behind the state average, but we’re in striking distance,” Borenstein said. “We’re well on our way, but there’s still a lot more room for many people to make the decision that today is the day to get vaccinated.”
Nearly 50% of the population is now fully vaccinated, with the rest one dose in, Borenstein said.
The county’s mass clinics for vaccines close Friday and appointments are still available. Afater that, people may get vaccinated at county Public Health mobile, pop-up and regular clinics.
That’s as health care providers and pharmacies across SLO County also are offering the vaccine.
Vaccine appointments for anyone age 12 and up can be made at myturn.ca.gov or recoverslo.org\vaccine.
Borenstein said increased vaccination is particularly important to prevent the spread of variants that can be more transmissible and deadly. She said that the virus can mutate once inside someone’s system, which could serve as an “incubator for the virus.”
“Each one of the variants are a concern, and now there are a half-dozen of them,” Borenstein said. “They can be up to 50% more easily spread from person to person, and in some cases more likely to result in severe disease and even death.”
Borenstein said that it’s possible a variant could form that the vaccines no longer respond to.
“Every time a person gets this virus, the body can serve as an incubator,” Borenstein said. “We want to keep the disease cases low, as we hear many experts say, so we can win the race against these vaccine variants.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
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