California prioritizes age as it adjusts vaccine distribution, Gov. Newsom says

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday announced that the state plans to shift its COVID-19 vaccination strategy to an age-based approach, aiming to deliver shots quickly to seniors.

Certain essential workers — healthcare workers, farm workers and teachers — also will continue to be able to obtain the vaccine before it is more widely available.

“We believe that the cohort 65 and over needs to be prioritized alongside health care workers, first responders, food and agricultural workers and school staff and teachers,” Newsom said during his press conference.

At the current rate Californians under age 65 likely will have to wait until late summer to receive the vaccine. State epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan last week said it would take 20 to 22 weeks just to vaccinate Californians over age 65.

The Democratic governor pointed to the comparably high COVID-19 mortality rate for seniors. About 75% percent of COVID-19-related deaths occur among people 65 and older, he said.

Newsom said the state can focus on more than one group at a time, likening the process to how an aircraft boards passengers by order of priority.

“They don’t wait for every first class passenger to be boarded before they announce all business class passengers,” Newsom said. “The point is to try to move folks the board as quickly as possible, but with prioritization.”

Newsom said that an age-based vaccination strategy “will allow use to scale up much more quickly to get vaccines to impacted communities much more expeditiously.”

As part of that new approach, Newsom said that the state has unveiled a new program called “My Turn” that will allow Californians to sign up for text or email alerts for when they are eligible to get the COVID-19 vaccine.

The program, which was created in partnership with companies SalesForce, Skedulo and Accenture, is currently part of a pilot initiative in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.

Newsom said he hopes that the program will be launched statewide by early February.

The governor said that the state is on track with President Joe Biden’s goal of 100 million vaccines administered in 100 days. Newsom said that to meet that goal, California must vaccinate 110,000 people a day, and the state is currently vaccinating 120,000 a day on weekdays.

“I personally believe it’s not a particularly challenging goal to meet, save one major caveat: And that’s supply,” Newsom said.

This story was originally published January 25, 2021 at 1:49 PM with the headline "California prioritizes age as it adjusts vaccine distribution, Gov. Newsom says."