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After nearly a month of offering virtually no first-dose COVID-19 vaccine opportunities, Santa Clara County has announced thousands of new appointments at its health clinics and mass vaccination sites.
In order to get a coveted photo, you must be a resident of Santa Clara County and meet the state’s current eligibility criteria. Eligibility criteria include people over the age of 50, residents of long-term care facilities, healthcare workers, people 16 years of age or older with high-risk health conditions or disabilities. , and workers in education, emergency services, transit, food and agriculture.
Over the past month, Santa Clara County has struggled to offer many first-dose appointments due to its limited vaccine supply and need to provide residents who received their first doses early with second doses on time.
This week marks the first time since early March that the county has released a significant number of first-dose slots – around 32,000 this week to be exact.
As of Thursday afternoon, there were still slots open at Gilroy High School and Berger San Jose Auditorium, Valley Health Center Tully, Emmanuel Baptist Church, and Santa Clara County Fairgrounds Expo Hall. No other appointments were available at Levi’s Stadium, Valley Specialty Center, Valley Health Center East Valley, or Mountain View Community Center.
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The county’s release of thousands of new appointments comes on the same day that California dramatically increased the number of residents eligible for the vaccine statewide. Californians aged 50 and over in all 58 counties can now get vaccinated officially through regular channels such as public health departments and health care providers and in just two weeks, on April 15, all Californians of 16 years and older will be eligible for a vaccine.
Although they have finally offered thousands of new appointments this week, Santa Clara County officials know that 32,000 doses will only cover a small fraction of residents now eligible for a vaccine.
State Representative Ro Khanna tweeted Thursday morning that he was working with the federal government and the Biden administration to speed up enrollment of federally qualified health centers in Santa Clara County into a new federal immunization program. aimed at making vaccine distribution more equitable. Contra Costa County, which is bursting with doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, recently received 14,000 doses under this program in addition to its regular state allocation.
“Santa Clara County needs more vaccine doses,” Khanna tweeted. “As cases continue to increase, it is essential that the most vulnerable are vaccinated as soon as possible.”
BOOK AN APPOINTMENT
To make an appointment, visit https://vax.sccgov.org/home or call 408-970-2000.
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