SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – San Diego County will open vaccinations to new groups starting Saturday.
According to the province, education and childcare workers, social workers, and those working in agriculture and food will be eligible for the vaccine starting this weekend.
The announcement takes the province into Phase 1B of the vaccination effort.
“We will open up vaccines for about half a million San Diegans,” supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Wednesday. “There won’t be half a million appointments available on Saturday, Sunday or Monday, or in the coming weeks,” warned Fletcher.
The county decided to open up vaccine appointments after a lack of first-dose use by seniors, Fletcher said.
Fletcher said vaccinations will be distributed to the authorities to help administer shots among the newly announced groups:
- Vaccinations for elementary school teachers will be handled by the San Diego County Office of Education. All others who qualify under this group go to the county vaccination website to make an appointment.
- Vaccinations for emergency workers will also be handled through the province’s website. Scripps Health will help get the police vaccinated.
- Vaccinations for people in the food and agriculture category will be handled through the province’s website. CAL FIRE will help vaccinate farm workers on site.
Fletcher added that more than 783,000 vaccines have been administered in San Diego County to date. Almost 68% of the seniors have been vaccinated. About 7.3% of San Diegans are fully vaccinated.
“We are getting vaccines in weapons at a very impressive rate,” said Fletcher.
San Diego County began receiving some of the nearly 80,000 storm-delayed vaccine doses on Tuesday night, allowing the county to reschedule any missed second doses and resume first-dose appointments.