*85 percent of county residents 16 years of age and older have received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
*The pandemic is not over
By Bay City News
The vaccine supply is sufficient to meet the demand, which will allow the county of Saint Matthew open vaccination to non-residents, Administrator Mike Callagy said during the latest COVID-19 press conference that health officials held Wednesday, with an eye toward recovery.
At the briefing, which for more than a year has provided updates on the pandemic through Zoom to the media, Callagy said, "We will remove any residency barriers or work requirements in the near future so that anyone, regardless of their background, can be vaccinated at one of our clinics.
But while he acknowledged all the efforts of the past year, he also said the pandemic is far from over. "I don't want to give the impression that we are at the finish line and say COVID is over. We have a long way to go, but we are overcoming it and we are recovering on time," the official said.
Callagy also highlighted some of the county's milestones over the past year, such as no new cases of COVID being reported on June 2.
Since the start of the pandemic, the county has seen 42,176 cases of COVID-19 and 579 deaths, six of them occurring in the last two weeks.
Also, the administrator reflected on some of the county's hurdles over the past year, from quarantining Grand Princess cruise ship passengers at a hotel in San Carlos to the months-long shelter-in-place order.
As the county and the rest of the world faced business closures, remote learning and shortages of personal protective equipment, or PPE, in San Mateo several groups and individuals came together to help control the virus.
One was the staff and leaders at the County Event Center, which became a place to set up additional hospital beds, free COVID testing and, eventually, mass vaccinations.
After the latest round of second doses at the San Francisco International Airport mass vaccination site, there will be no more such events in the county. Vaccinations will continue at community clinics, pharmacies and possibly pop-up events.
And while he doesn't know what the future holds, he hopes the county is on the right track to never have another COVID-19 death.
San Mateo County plans to fully align with the state's reopening and recovery plan, and even for businesses that want tighter restrictions, there will be no separate orders, he said.
"It will be entirely up to the individual owners what they do with respect to customers coming into their businesses. We won't get involved in that."
He thanked the community organizations that collaborated with the county to provide resources and programs to help those in need; for example, Great Plates served more than 2.5 million free meals to more than 4,600 seniors in the county.
Funding for the program ends July 7, but Callagy said the county will "pick it up through the end of the month" and ensure that food insecure people continue to meet their needs.
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