50% of Californians have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

Some 19. 6 million Californians have already had at least one injection to inoculate, a new milestone for the Golden State in his fight to stop the coronavirus

Photo: PATRICK T. FALLON / AFP / Getty Images

More than half of the residents of California has already had at least one dose of the vaccine against COVID – 19, a new milestone in the five-month vaccination campaign.

Almost 19. 6 million Californians had received at least one injection as of this Saturday , according to an analysis of Los Angeles Times . Regarding people who already have both doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine – and, therefore, are already fully vaccinated-, the percentage amounts to 38% of the population of the golden state .

California ranks ranked number 12 among the states of the country with the highest percentage of residents vaccinated with at least one dose, according to the network of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The states that have administered their vaccination the fastest are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey. In contrast, the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are still struggling harder to inject their population with the vaccine.

The rate of vaccination in California has improved since Five months ago the first dose was administered to Helen Cordova, an ICU nurse at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center on Sunset Boulevard.

By early February, they had put some 150, 000 injections and two months later, in the first days of April, the process accelerated until reaching an average of 400, 000 doses per day.

However, in In recent weeks, local authorities have shown concern about the decline in demand for vaccines , essential to achieve the so-called group immunity. That is why, in some parts of the state, mass vaccination points are beginning to close to focus efforts on the mobile clinics that can offer easier access to the vaccine in the most affected neighborhoods , many of them with a significant number of the Latino population.

Although mass vaccination at sports venues and fairgrounds helped give a good boost in the first months, it may also have excluded people who they needed inoculation more urgently, such as people who live in these most vulnerable neighborhoods, those who live in multi-generational or multi-family housing, and those who need to leave home to work. In situations such as those described are many Hispanics in the state .

The announcement this week that the children and adolescents between 12 Y 15 years can also be vaccinated brings hope that it does not decline the good vaccination rate achieved. According to the Times, authorities also hope this will encourage older family members who have not yet been vaccinated. The doses of the three vaccines approved in the United States are administered freely free to all residents , regardless of your health insurance and immigration status.