Fresno County expecting 32,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses next week

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- More COVID vaccines are headed to the Central Valley and Fresno County is soon expected to receive its biggest shipment to date.

"We'll have 32,000 doses next week for allocation. That's a significant increase from the prior week, so we're excited about that," said Fresno County Public Health Division Manager Joe Prado.

Governor Newsom visited one of the state vaccination sites in Fresno on Friday, aimed at administering doses to farm and food workers in rural areas.

Newsom also pledged a 58% increase in vaccine allocations to the Central Valley.

Fresno County health officials Friday said they're gradually getting more providers approved to vaccinate the community, and are working to increase their distribution system as they get more of those doses.

"We benefited from having a lot of partners and relationships in the medical system so that could feed into the distribution system, but we are going to need a 3-week window to effectively get those doses quicker," Prado said.

With the push to get students back in school, Fresno County health officials said more doses allow them to set aside more vaccines for educators.

"For education, we were planning 8,000 doses a week - next week we're going to allocate 11,000 doses," Prado said.

Come next Monday, the state will move to a single statewide eligibility standard, eliminating individual county standards and confusion with who can get a shot.

County health officials are also reaching out to providers that have the proper refrigeration to hold the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be ready once it's authorized for emergency use.