San Benito County prepares for Phase 1B of the COVID-19 vaccine

HOLLISTER, Calif. (KION)

With a new portal and a big chunk of doses administered, San Benito County announces they are preparing for the next group of thousands to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

According to the CDC, California has only administered 26.5 percent of the received doses. In San Benito County, they are up to 43 percent.

That is why they are able to say "see ya soon, Seniors!" San Benito County Spokesperson David Westrick tells KION they are still a few weeks away, but are wrapping up Phase 1A healthcare workers and skilled nursing facilities.

The biggest issue now - they need more doses of the vaccine. San Benito has 57 percent of its doses left, but the California Department of Public Health recommends 50 percent of a county's remaining supply is saved for second doses.

"We are getting there. It is a work in progress. I think the Central Coast and the rest of California is all in the same boat," Westrick says.

The next group is also large and not the easiest to reach.

Phase 1B includes emergency services workers and educators, but also people 65 and older and farm workers. Local organizations say they are meeting their current client base on the ground, and through word of mouth.

"It is real difficult because a lot of our seniors don't have computers," says Jovenes de Antaño Executive Director Pauline Valdivia. "So it is either by personal contact through Meals on Wheels and also through the phone."

Jovenes de Antaño works with more than 300 Seniors, and for the vaccine rollout, they are partnering with the San Benito Health Foundation - the foundation's efforts extend even further to help low-income groups. They are working with their 10-thousand clients, as well as with growers to vaccinate 10-thousand farmworkers, grocery store workers and educators.

"Reach out to our patients and create mock appointments. We have been doing that for about a month, to make sure that once the phase they are in is released, we are able to move them forward and give them an appointment very quickly," says San Benito Health Foundation President and CEO Rosa Vivian Fernandez.

United Way also hopes to reach seniors through the Great Plates program, putting vaccine information in the deliveries, like they did with other COVID-19 outreach during the earlier parts of the pandemic.