San Joaquin County continues to administer COVID-19 shots at a clip of about 1,000 a week.
That has allowed 42.26 percent of the county’s adult population or 318,438 people to become fully vaccinated.
The fully vaccinated rate in the South County is higher than the county overall numbers as well as in Stockton and in Lodi.
Those fully vaccinated comes in at 63.94 percent for Escalon, 57.53 percent for Lathrop, 57.16 percent for Tracy, 50.6 percent for Manteca, and 45.3 percent for Ripon.
San Joaquin County Public Health Officer Dr. Maggie Park told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday that the county’s overall average COVID-19 case rate continues to decline, which has dropped from 6.2 to 3.8 per 100,000 over the past three weeks and moved the county to the Orange Tier on June 1.
The positive test rate for the entire county as of Monday was at 2.0 percent. As of that date 35 residents hospitalized, 13 of which are in the ICU.
Park said that the county is turning their vaccination efforts to people living in specific zip codes where vaccination rates are lower than other areas in order to target vaccination efforts specifically to people who haven’t been immunized.
“There is great news to report all around,” Park said. “COVID-19 case rates, positivity rates, hospitalizations and deaths are all declining. Businesses and social activities are opening up. More than half our residents . . . are fully or partially vaccinated and the vaccinations are proving highly effective which is demonstrated by much lower number of people who are contracting COVID-19 or being hospitalized. Everyday life will soon feel a lot like life before COVID-19.”
Park gave the supervisors an update on the activities that can resume after June 15 when the state lifts previous rules under the Blueprint for a Safer Economy and returns to usual business operations and public activities. She said fully vaccinated people will be able to resume indoor and outdoor activities without wearing masks, physically distancing or capacity limits, with the exception of schools, health care settings and long-term care facilities, homeless shelters, correctional facilities, all modes of public transit (planes, trains, buses) as well as indoor mega events where more than 5,000 people are attending.
“It is about time these State enforced rules come to an end,” said Board of Supervisors chair Tom Patti. “Now that the medical system is no longer overwhelmed, these restrictions in the workplace and in public are no longer necessary. We need to focus our energy and efforts on recovering from this past year and moving forward with no constraints or limitations.”
