SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Nearly 600 people joined a virtual town hall Thursday with San Diego County supervisor Jim Desmond and health experts to ask questions about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.
Just this week, the county announced all people in Phase 1A are now eligible to get their first dose.
Dr. Christian Ramers, with Family Health Centers of San Diego, is on the COVID vaccine clinical advisory committee. They're in charge of making decisions related to the rollout. He says their next focus will be Phase 1B.
"The first tier right now off the bat is age 75 and older and that's a pretty easy one cause the mortality is just so much higher," Ramers said.
California's coronavirus vaccine rollout will next have individuals 75 and older and those at risk of exposure in several business sectors.
California is currently in Phase 1A, which allows healthcare workers and long-term care residents and workers to receive the shot.
Phase 1B includes two tiers. The first includes:
- Individuals 75 and older; and
- Those at risk of exposure at work in education, childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture sectors;
The second tier includes:
- Individuals 65-74 years old;
- Those at risk of exposure at work in transportation and logistics, industrial, commercial, residential, and sheltering facilities and services, critical manufacturing; and
- Congregate setting with outbreak risk, incarcerated and homeless
There isn't a set date right now on when we could move forward in phases, but it could be within a matter of weeks.
According to the county, there have been more than 200,000 doses allocated to the region. But the county has only received about 120,500, and of that, nearly 52,000 doses have been administered.
The county says they're trying to be as aggressive as possible in getting the vaccines out — which means not waiting until everyone in a phase or tier has been vaccinated.