Are more Californians getting a first vaccine dose as COVID surges? What the data shows
The raging omicron variant is sending COVID-19 transmission rates to all-time highs in California, breaking records almost daily since the start of 2022.
With coronavirus infections as well as hospitalizations soaring, are more unvaccinated California adults getting first doses during the omicron surge than before it began?
Just over 80% of Californians ages 5 and older have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine to date, according to the state health department. For the state’s roughly 31 million adults, the rate is about 87%.
The state is currently seeing about 250,000 residents get a first dose per week. That was the seven-day total for Jan. 4 to Jan. 10, California Department of Public Health data show, and the state recorded similar totals in mid-December, before the Christmas and New Year holidays.
It’s a fraction of the roughly 1.8 million weekly doses given at the peak of the vaccination campaign in April 2021, when vaccines first became available to the general population, but it’s also a far cry from zero demand.
About one-third of the recent 250,000 first doses were given to children ages 5 to 11, who became eligible for the jab in early November.
Another 40% of the week’s total came in adults aged 18 to 49, who make up about 45% of the state’s 5-and-older population and who have been eligible for nine months. Smaller proportions were administered to adolescents and to older adults.
While the rate among young children has declined after an initial spike in demand, the pace of new vaccinations in the young adult demographic appears to be trending upward again after steadily declining throughout September and October, a Sacramento Bee analysis of CDPH data found, though the winter holidays complicate the picture.
From Dec. 1 to Dec. 7, just over 104,000 adults ages 18 to 49 got a first dose, the most in any seven-day stretch since the final week of September. That’s about 17% higher than the 89,000 newly vaccinated the first week of November, and 27% higher than a low point of 82,000 in late October, just before Halloween.
The vaccination pace in younger adults also spiked significantly during California’s last big surge. As the delta variant took hold last summer, the rolling seven-day total for first doses among ages 18 to 49 jumped to 200,000 by mid-August from about 125,000 per week in mid-July, a 60% increase.
As that surge subsided and case rates began to wane, so did the weekly pace of new vaccinations.
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s celebrations muddied the data a bit in recent weeks. But CDPH numbers still appear to show the pace of young adults getting vaccinated has increased between and after the major holidays, starting in early November.
Notably, the week leading up to Christmas saw more young adults in California get a first dose than any seven-day stretch in close to three months: Over 108,000 Californians ages 18 to 49 got their first jab the week of Dec. 17 to Dec. 23.
California’s vaccination rate is highest in older adults, with about 91% of seniors 65 and older and 90% of those ages 50 to 64 at least partially vaccinated. About 84% of younger adults have had at least one dose, followed by 71% of adolescents ages 12 to 17 and 30% of children 5 to 11.
Health officials note that while vaccines may have lower efficiency in preventing infections from omicron than from delta or earlier variants, full vaccination appears to maintain very strong protection against severe illness and death across all known variants.
State Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly, during a Wednesday news conference with Gov. Gavin Newsom, said Californians who chose to get vaccinated “should be celebrated.”
“Today, someone who decided for the last 13 months not to get vaccinated decided today was the day,” Ghaly said.
What about booster doses?
Health officials also are urging residents who are fully vaccinated to get a booster dose when eligible.
CDPH as of Thursday reported that 11.3 million Californians have been boosted. That’s 49% of all Californians who are fully vaccinated and within the eligible time frame.
Across all ages and eligibility statuses, including children younger than 5, about 77% of all 39.5 million Californians are at least partially vaccinated; 69% are fully vaccinated with two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson; and 29% are boosted.
Federal health officials recently shortened the window for receiving a booster of the Pfizer vaccine, from six months to five months after the second dose in the original two-dose series.
This story was originally published January 14, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Are more Californians getting a first vaccine dose as COVID surges? What the data shows."
