In just two months, vaccine efforts make good progress among Fresno teens. Here’s how
Teens younger than 18 have only been able to get coronavirus vaccines for about two months, but in that short time, nearly one in five eligible children ages 12 to 17 have received at least one dose in Fresno County.
As of Thursday, the state Department of Public Health reports that almost 17,700 young people are at least partially vaccinated, and more than 6,500 have received two vaccine doses and are now considered fully vaccinated. That’s 19% of nearly 93,000 people in the 12-to-17 age range in Fresno County.
An average of about 278 shots per day have been given to eligible teens since April 8.
The uptake has been even stronger in the three weeks since shots became available to 12- to 15-year-olds – an average of more than 470 doses per day for kids, and a total of more than 10,000 doses, since May 12, when the Fresno County Health Department opened up vaccine eligibility to the broader age group. That relative surge of parents consenting for their children to get shots represents an increase of 11 percentage points in the age range.
“I’m excited about the numbers so far” for vaccinated kids, assistant county health department director Joe Prado said Friday in a media conference with reporters. “It’s just been a multiple approach to getting the word out to the 12-and-older” ages.
By contrast, working-age adults ages 18 to 49 – a population numbering almost 445,000 in Fresno County – have seen their percentage of people with at least one dose grow by only 3.5% in the same three-week span. That’s indicative of the dramatic decline in demand for vaccines across the county.
Among adults who have been eligible to get their shots for months rather than weeks, fewer than half of 18- to 49-year-olds have received at least one shot. Older adults have significantly higher vaccination rates so far in Fresno County – more than two-thirds of residents ages 50 to 65, and more than three-quarters of senior citizens ages 65 and older.
Prado credited partnerships between the department and local school leaders with the progress in vaccinating adolescents and teens.
“It was really our coordination and collaboration with superintendents in Fresno County; we meet with them weekly,” Prado said Friday. He added that the county has put “a lot of our mobile clinics on school district property, as well. They’ve been really open to us co-locating with them.”
He added that offering clinics for adults at school sites also opens the door to describing the importance of getting teens vaccinated. “It is great when you have a family at your site and you can have that conversation,” Prado said. “And they can bring other families in, and their children as well.”
Reaching the working-age adults under 50 is a different challenge. Even with new incentives being offered locally, including gift cards, grocery vouchers and other collaborations with local businesses and a state “Vax for the Win” lottery for cash prizes, the response has been lackluster.
“I wouldn’t say there’s been a significant increase” since the incentives were introduced, Prado said. “We’ve been able to maintain our 3,000 doses a day, but then we are seeing a little bit of a dip from those 3,000 doses a day.”
“For that group that still hasn’t gotten off the fence with all these incentives offered to them, it really is those more face-to-face conversations” that will be needed to get needles into their arms, Prado said. “We’re just going to have to create that space for more one-on-one kind of conversations.”
At least two of the county’s large-scale vaccination sites in southeast Fresno, the Sunnyside Social Services Center and the Fresno Fairgrounds, will be closed by the end of June, Prado said. In their place will be an increased number of mobile clinics targeting neighborhoods in that part of the city with low vaccination rates.
“Just because we bring down a mass vaccination clinic doesn’t mean we won’t be there” in the area, he added.
The latest case numbers
Friday coronavirus case updates provided by counties in the central San Joaquin Valley include:
Fresno County: 19 new cases on Friday, 129 this week since Sunday, and 102,566 since the first local cases were confirmed in March 2020. Two deaths were acknowledged on Friday, for a total of five fatalities reported this week, and 1,709 to date.
Kings County: 21 new cases Friday, 43 this week, and 23,102 to date; no additional deaths this week, 247 to date.
Madera County: Two new cases Friday, 23 this week, and 16,453 to date; no additional deaths Friday, one this week, 245 to date.
Mariposa County: No new cases as of Friday morning, seven this week, 461 to date; no additional deaths this week, seven to date.
Merced County: 10 new cases Friday, 51 this week, and 32,193 to date; no additional deaths Friday, two this week, 471 to date.
Tulare County: 17 new cases Friday, 66 this week, and 49,854 to date after adjustments to totals by the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency; one additional death Friday, none for the rest of the week, and 847 to date.
