63% of Santa Barbara County fully vaccinated; 5 to 11-year-olds slow to get vaccine

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — It’s been over a month since 5 to 11 years olds became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. So far getting them a vaccine has been difficult. Santa Barbara County Public Health officials state that 86% of kids 5 to 11 years old are still without a vaccine. And only 2% are fully vaccinated.

Santa Barbara County Public Health is hosting rotation vaccination clinics. Most of their efforts have been on the north and central parts of the county. As a whole Santa Barbara County has only 62.8% of its residents fully vaccinated. 70.1% of the county residents have had at least one dose. While 72,443 booster doses have been administered. 

Santa Barbara’s southern part of the county has a substantially higher vaccination rate, 69% fully vaccinated compared to the other parts of the county. North county has 58.2% fully vaccinated while central county has 54.9%.

The next largest groups of unvaccinated people in Santa Barbara County are 12 to 15 year olds and 16 to 29 year old. In May kids 12 to 15 years old became eligible to get their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. However there are still 36% of that population, or about 8,200 kids without a single dose. In April those 16 and older could get their COVID vaccines. However, 32,455 people between 16 and 29 years-old have not gotten a dose. That’s about 31% of the population.

Local health experts remind everyone that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective to end the pandemic. To signup to get your COVID-19 vaccine visit MyTurn.ca.gov or visit the Santa Barbara County Public Health website.