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More Than 1 in 10 San Joaquin Residents Have Been Vaccinated Against COVID-19

February 25, 2021 at 3:21 pm

Approximately 80,400 people in San Joaquin have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, comprising more than 10% of the county’s approximately 760,000 residents. Out of those people, 30,800 have also received their second shot, for a total of nearly 111,200 doses administered.

Like the rest of the state, San Joaquin is in Phases 1A and 1B of its rollout, which include healthcare workers, long-term care residents, individuals 65 and older, and workers in food, education, and emergency services. Eligibility is set to expand on March 15 to people under 65 who have underlying health conditions.

The county office of education began vaccinating teachers last week, boosting the possibility of a return to in-person classes. Other vaccine events have targeted veterans and homeless shelter residents.

SJ vaccinations

The San Joaquin County Office of Education began giving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to teachers last week.

San Joaquin County Office of Education

But despite having 10% of its residents vaccinated, San Joaquin is still lagging behind the state average. As of Thursday, 14.3% of Californians have received at least one dose.

In fact, many of the counties in the Central Valley have had slower vaccine distributions. Kings County, for example, has administered the fewest doses per capita in the state. Some officials have been trying to correct this disparity, with Gov. Gavin Newsom announcing on Monday that vaccine allocations to the Valley would be increased by 58%.

Newsom also said that the state would be partnering with health care organization OptumServe to open up 11 vaccination sites in the region.

Rep. Josh Harder (D, CA-10), whose district covers most of southern San Joaquin, has also petitioned the federal government to expand coronavirus testing and vaccines in the Central Valley, particularly for agricultural workers.

Vaccinations are also likely to speed up once the one-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is approved, which could come as soon as this weekend.

But despite a slower-than-average vaccine rollout, San Joaquin’s numbers have declined significantly. The county’s test positivity rate is now below the threshold to enter the red tier, and its current daily case rate per 100,000 people of 17.1 is a drop of more than 30% from last week’s rate of 25.1.