Here’s how many California kids have had a COVID vaccine, about a week into rollout
Close to 150,000 Californians ages 5 to 11 have gotten their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine since young children became eligible last week, new state data show.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine was cleared for use in California on Nov. 3, though many providers did not begin appointments or clinics until this week. About 85,000 of the 147,000 reported doses were administered this Monday through Wednesday, according to data updated Thursday by the California Department of Public Health.
The state estimates it has about 3.5 million children ages 5 to 11, so the early figure represents about 4.2% of the newly eligible population.
CDPH has not reported data yet for nine rural counties — Alpine, Calaveras, Colusa, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Sierra, Trinity and Tuolumne. Those nine combine for about 12,500 children, less than half a percent of the state’s newly eligible group.
For the remaining 49 counties with data available, the early rates vary widely.
As with vaccination rates for those 12 and older, Bay Area counties led the way: Marin has the highest rate at 13.4%, with Santa Clara second at 12.8%. Sparsely populated Mono County has reached 12.5%, followed by San Francisco at an even 12%.
There’s also wide variance within the Sacramento region.
Yolo County ranked fifth statewide at 11.8%. Placer County ranked ninth at 6%, almost two percentage points above the California average. Sacramento County came slightly below average at 4%, placing it 18th. El Dorado County trailed its neighbors, with only 2.5% of young children partially vaccinated in the first eight days, according to CDPH.
The early rates are even lower in Yuba and Sutter counties, as has been the case for adult and adolescent vaccinations. CDPH data show only 0.8% of newly eligible children in Yuba County and 0.7% in Sutter County received a dose in the first eight days.
Several other rural and Central Valley counties — Kings, Tehama, Glenn, San Joaquin, Merced, Lake and Stanislaus — have also had fewer than 1% get a first dose.
Health experts say vaccinating children is an important step in ending the pandemic, and in preventing severe surges as early as this winter. At 3.5 million, kids 5 to 11 make up about 9% of California’s 39.5 million residents.
This story was originally published November 11, 2021 at 10:32 AM.
