Gov. Newsom pledges faster vaccine rollout

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

About 612,000 more coronavirus vaccine doses are headed to California as state officials try to speed up the rollout.

On Jan. 4, Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state’s inoculation program, which began Dec. 14, should be more efficient in coming weeks.

As of Jan. 3, about 454,000 doses had been administered, about a third of the nearly 1.3 million Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines the state has received so far, according to news reports.

The state is preparing to add more distribution sites and authorize more medical professionals to give shots, such as dentists, pharmacy technicians and members of the National Guard, according to Newsom.

California is in the first leg of its vaccination campaign—Phase 1A—which includes about 3 million frontline medical workers and residents of nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

Technicians and nurses with pharmacy chains CVS and Walgreens are tasked with vaccinating long-term care facility residents and staff.

The next leg, Phase 1B, will be split in two: First up will be people age 75 and older and high-risk workers such as teachers, childcare workers and more emergency services personnel.

Next will be people ages 65-74, prisoners, homeless and high-risk workers in transportation, industrial, commercial, residential and “critical” manufacturing sectors.

It is not clear when the next phase will begin.

Phase 1C is expected to include people age 50 and older, and people ages 16-64 with underlying medical conditions or a disability that increases their risk of a severe coronavirus case. The third phase also includes workers in sectors such as energy, water, defense, communications and government operations.

The state’s Community Vaccine Advisory Committee met Jan. 6 to decide more details related to Phase 1C, Newsom said.

State officials have said shots should be widely available to the general public by early summer.