Beginning February 16, Santa Barbara County residents 65 and older will get their first opportunity to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination.
Santa Barbara County has lagged in getting this group vaccinated, so far only vaccinating health-care workers and those 75 and older, while other counties in the state were able to vaccinate those 65 and older.
“Even though we are moving to the 65+, we are still very limited in the number of vaccines that we get as a county,” Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said. “I just want to ground us in reality… We have a lot more people than we have vaccines for.”
In addition, the state announced Friday that people between the ages of 16 and 64 who are disabled or are at high risk of death or serious illness if they contract the virus will be eligible to receive their vaccines March 15 as vaccines become available.
The county gets an estimated 6,000 doses per week, and there are over 40,000 people aged 65-74 in the county alone. So far, the county has received 61,000 doses and has administered 99 percent of that.
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