Contra Costa County hits 1 million mark with COVID-19 vaccine doses

MARTINEZ, Calif. - As expected, Contra Costa County has now provided more than 1 million doses of the COVID vaccine, according to recent data from the county.

So far the county has administered 1,022,699 doses. 

Earlier this year county health officials announced its goal of administering 1 million vaccine doses by the Fourth of July. At that time, more than 65,000 vaccine doses had been administered countywide. 

After receiving an abundance of vaccine doses, county officials moved up the 1 million vaccination deadline to Memorial Day.
       
Since January, the county has been inundated with vials of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines before the latter's use was temporarily paused nationwide to investigate at least six cases of women under age 50 developing severe blood clots potentially connected to its use. 

On Friday, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel recommended the J&J vaccine be put back into circulation, determining that its benefits outweigh the risks.

At the time of the pause, more than 6 million J&J vaccines had been administered nationwide.

Contra Costa County has received so many vaccine doses in recent weeks that it opened vaccine eligibility to all residents age 16 and older on March 30, more than two weeks before the state's targeted date of April 15.

Last week, county officials announced the launch of walk-in vaccination clinics in several parts of the county that have been hardest hit by the pandemic, including Antioch, Concord, Pittsburg and Richmond.

Approximately two-thirds of the county's population age 16 and older has now received at least one vaccine dose.

According to county data, 44.3 percent of eligible residents are already fully vaccinated, equating to 409,916 residents.