Santa Clara County is opening up vaccine eligibility to many more people by the end of the month.
People who work in education and childcare, food and agriculture and emergency services will be able to start getting their shots on Feb. 28.
“We’ve made this transition because we are making good progress on the group that we’re vaccinating now – that is, people living in the county who are ages 65 years and up. We have vaccinated over 50% of those 75 and over,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Health Officer and Director of Public Health for the County of Santa Clara.
She says there are still some lingering supply issues, which is why the groups are not eligible immediately.
“But it looks like we will be in very good shape with this group and have the capacity to bring on additional eligible persons. And as everyone knows, the more people that we can get vaccinated, the better off we all are.”
Dr. Cody says expanding eligibility to these three job categories will help speed up reopening of schools and, “will help ensure that many of our essential workers, particularly those essential workers who are living in communities that are hardest hit, will have access to vaccine.”
Getting teachers vaccinated has been a key issue in negotiations between teachers and districts across the Bay Area to reopen schools.
The county aims to vaccinate 85% of its over-16 population by the summer.
“Of course it depends on the vaccine supply. But you need to set a goal and that’s what we did.”
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