Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino is one of several patients who received their COVID-19 vaccine Thursday.
Doses of the Pfizer vaccine were administered to Santa Barbara County residents age 75 and older by staff from Marian Regional Medical Center.
"I'm so pleased," says Mayor Alice Patino. "I hope everyone comes out and gets the vaccine when it's available to them."
Over the next four days, Dignity Health says it hopes to administer at least 4,000 doses.
"We're doing this even while our hospital is surging," says Robyn Dodds, Patient Experience Director at Marian Regional Medical Center. "We want to get this out to the community. So they're willing to pick up extra, just to make sure that this vaccine gets out to our community."
Appointments are completely booked.
Everyone who received a vaccine today will need to get their second and final dose in about three weeks.
