Merced County adults 50-and-older eligible for the COVID vaccine on April 1, says Newsom
With the supply of COVID-19 vaccines expected to increase next month, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday announced soon all adults will be eligible to be vaccinated.
Starting on April 1, all California residents over the age of 50 will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccines. Starting on April 15, all California residents over the age of 16 will be eligible to get coronavirus vaccinations, according to 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.
Newsom said that vaccine allotment would be re figured 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.
In Merced County vaccine eligibility is currently open to healthcare workers; senior citizens age 65 and older; people ages 16 to 64 with certain serious underlying medical conditions; emergency-service employees; workers of any age in the education or child-care sectors, including teachers, administrators and school staff; people who work in the agriculture or food industries, including farmers and farm workers, employees at food packing and processing plants, and workers in restaurants, grocery stores and other parts of the food-supply chain; transportation workers. and utility workers who respond to emergencies.
In Merced County at least 59,355 residents have been vaccinated, or 10.3% of the population. The county remains in purple Tier 1 of California’s coronavirus Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the most restrictive level of limitations on businesses in the state’s color-coded program. Tier 1 denotes that “widespread” transmission of the virus is continuing in a county.
Merced County reports one death
The Merced County Department of Public Health reported one new COVID-19 related death on Thursday afternoon, bringing the total of fatalities to 432 since the start of the pandemic.
The latest death was a woman over the age of 65 who was known to have underlying health conditions.
Merced County also reported 32 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, raising the total of residents infected by the virus to 30,372 since the start of the pandemic.
Merced County has 661 residents who are estimated to be currently infected. That’s down 101 cases from a week ago.
The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the coronavirus is 16 — with 10 people in the ICU.
According to the state, Merced County hospitals had six ICU beds remaining as of Thursday.
Merced County has a positivity rate of 4.6%, indicating the level of people among those tested who had a positive result. That’s a slight decrease from 5% on Monday.
Around the Valley
Stanislaus County: Reported 74 COVID-19 new cases, 52,315 cases to date; three new deaths, 988 deaths to date.
Fresno County: 75 new cases, 98,437 to date; no new deaths, 1,571 deaths to date.
Kings County: 15 new confirmed cases, 22,561 to date; no additional deaths, 239 to date. More than 7,200 of the cases, and 17 deaths, have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 19 new confirmed cases, 15,850 to date; no additional deaths, 231 to date. Nearly 2,500 of Madera County’s cases have been among inmates at state prisons near Chowchilla.
Mariposa County: No new cases as of Thursday morning, 406 to date; no additional deaths, seven to date.
Tulare County: 30 new confirmed cases, 48,931 to date; no additional deaths, 802 to date.
The San Luis Obispo Tribune and Fresno Bee contributed to this report.
