Newsom says in less than 6 weeks all Californians can access COVID-19 vaccine

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The COVID-19 vaccine could be available to all Californians very soon. Friday Governor Gavin Newsom announced vaccine accessibility will be expanded to all California's before the end of April.

"We are anticipating within five and-a-half weeks where we can eliminate all the tiering and available vaccine to everybody across the spectrum, because supply will exponentially increase," said Gov. Newsom.

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Newsom said next week California is expected to receive 1.8 million doses.

"We have administered 1.2 million doses in the last 72 hours. We received just 1.7 million last week for the entire week. We went through a large percentage of that in three days," said Gov. Newsom.

Stanford's Infectious disease specialist, Dr. Dean Winslow says this announcement gives him hope and gets us closer to herd immunity.

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"It really does. This context of herd immunity is somewhat illusive. A little bit controversial, but we do know that based on how transmissible this virus is we need to have 75% or even 80% of the population immune," said Dr. Winslow, Stanford Professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist.

But is it possible?

Dr. Wasserman is part of the state's vaccine advisory committee and is skeptical.

"I hope that between the state, Blue Shield and the counties, we have develop the infrastructure and the plans to make that happen. That remains to be seen right now. It is unclear," said Dr. Mike Wasserman.

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Dr. Wasserman explains that in order for Gov. Newsom to accomplish this goal, the state needs to simplify accessibility.

"When you have rural areas where you got some inner city areas or you got people who are homeless, you've got to develop multiple approaches. So whether is mobile clinics, whether it's bringing the vaccine to the people who need it, we are going to have to have a broader approach," said Dr. Wasserman.

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