Starting this Thursday, eligible Santa Barbara County residents can register for COVID-19 vaccinations at a County Public Health clinic opening in Santa Maria next week.
The clinic will be held at Allan Hancock College from Monday, April 5 through Sunday, April 11.
Registration will open at 9 a.m. on Thursday, April 1, on the County Public Health website. Residents may also call 211 and select option 4 for assistance scheduling an appointment.
Those currently eligible to receive the vaccine in Santa Barbara County are health care workers, residents 50 years of age and older, people ages 16-64 who are at high risk because of a severe medical condition or disability, and workers in the education/childcare, food/agriculture, and emergency services sectors.
County officials say they expect to administer 10,550 doses at the Santa Maria vaccination site. First-dose Pfizer vaccines will be administered, but one day of the clinic will be reserved for second-dose Moderna vaccines.
Additional first-dose appointments will be available in Santa Barbara and Lompoc next week. Registration for those appointments will open at 9 a.m. on Monday, April 5.
These vaccination clinics were made possible due to an increased supply that came out of the county's participation in the Health Center COVID-19 Vaccine Program, a partnership between the Health Resources & Services Administration and the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), which has begun increasing COVID-19 vaccine supplies at select HRSA-funded health centers, including the Santa Barbara County Health Care Centers.
For more information on the county's COVID-19 response, visit publichealthsbc.org.