California opens vaccination to all people 65 and over, as hospitals grapple with COVID-19 surge

Californians aged 65 and over can start getting vaccinated immediately after the state on Wednesday agreed to a major expansion of its coronavirus vaccination efforts, in part in hopes of quelling a raging outbreak that continues to rush hospitals.

The announcement follows federal guidelines on Tuesday for states to make vaccine doses available to a wide range of older adults, who are most at risk of becoming seriously ill, needing hospitalization and treatment. intensive care and die.

Although the number of hospitals and intensive care has stabilized somewhat in California over the past week, many counties still carry a huge patient load and deaths from COVID-19 are increasing. Immunizing the elderly will not have an immediate impact on the flare-up, but it could help alleviate some of that pressure within weeks, public health officials said.

“The vast majority of hospital patients are elderly, and intensive care admissions and deaths also occur with elderly people,” said Dr Tomás Aragón, head of public health and director of the Department of Public Health from California at a meeting of the Vaccine Advisory Committee. “The way we’re going to impact the outbreak is to prioritize older groups.”

State health officials told the meeting that lowering the age to 65 and over adds 4.25 million Californians.