At least 70% of California residents have gotten at least one dose of the COVID vaccine.
The Los Angeles Times reports the state reached the benchmark over the weekend, almost eleven months after the first shots were administered. About 8% of children ages five-through-eleven have gotten the first dose since the vaccine was approved for that age group on November Fourth. More than 63% of Californians are fully vaccinated. “The single most important thing that we can do as a community to reduce our risk for another winter surge is to decrease our numbers of unvaccinated people,” Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said during a recent briefing.
There’s ample evidence at this point that the protection afforded by the vaccines wanes over time, according to The Los Angeles Times.That erosion could be most pronounced for those who received their vaccines during the early days of the rollout, including healthcare workers, residents and staff in long-term care settings and senior citizens. Already, more than 4.1 million Californians have received a booster dose, state data show.