Fresno County expanding vaccine eligibility to anyone 16+

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KFSN) -- The Fresno County Department of Public Health is expanding eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine, allowing more residents to get their shots.

Health officials say a stable vaccine supply and a lull in the number of people getting their shots allowed Fresno County to open up vaccine availability to high school-age students starting Friday.

Families should be able to now make appointments for their teens.

Click here to make an appointment through MyTurn.

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Only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for the younger group to get their shots, so parents need to keep that in mind.

Those 18 and over can also receive the Moderna or Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

The expanded eligibility will help protect more people.

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Health Officer Dr. Rais Vohra says the vaccine has been effective against COVID-19 variants thus far, which will be important if we are to meet Governor Newsom's target date to re-open California.

"The variants, the vaccine supply and then just the human motivation to get vaccinated - all of those really need to line up for us to meet that June 15th deadline," he says.

Fresno County's goal is to vaccinate 1.2 million people by the end of August.

The county is over a third of the way there.