Santa Barbara County is making changes to its Mobile Vaccine Program, including a shift from two teams to one.
“We just don't have that community demand for as many clinics that we as we've been operating," Matt Higgs, the ELC Program Manager at Santa Barbara County, told KSBY. "So we're just pulling back from that a little bit.”
The change comes as a demand for COVID-19 vaccines goes down across the county.
“Now we're down to [...] typically under 50 individuals that are coming into two-hour mobile clinics," Higgs said. "Some of them are down below 20 individuals that we're seeing per day."
The omicron surge is when county officials estimate they saw the most clients, counting around 600 people at a clinic in a single day. Many other locations saw around 100 people daily.
The county will now be focusing on outreach toward high risk groups. These groups include seniors, people working in agriculture, those living in shelters and children under twelve.
The county says they will continue their work at local schools to encourage vaccinations in younger children.
The latest data shows 68% percent of people in Santa Barbara County are fully vaccination.
County public health officials said the Mobile Vaccine Program allowed nearly 30,000 community members to receive at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Officials say they will keep the Santa Maria Fairpark open until at least June 2022. They add that people can visit their medical provider or a local pharmacy to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine.
