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The rate of fully vaccinated Grover Beach residents is roughly 10 percent less than the county's, according to San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department numbers from Sept. 7.
"The city's vaccination rate continues to be below the countywide average and Arroyo Grande and Pismo Beach and roughly equal to Oceano," a Sept. 13 Grover Beach city staff report said.
In a bid to boost COVID-19 resistance, the beach city opened a free testing site for the South County on Sept. 13 at 1336 Ramona Ave.
"We continue to communicate to residents the importance of getting vaccinated to protect themselves and others from COVID-19. We're also working with the county on vaccine outreach to our residents, including the possibility of holding a mobile vaccination site in our community," City Manager Matthew Bronson told New Times.
According to the Los Angeles Times' California COVID-19 tracker, 57 Grover Beach residents tested positive for the virus in the two weeks prior to Sept. 14. The city's status report also mentioned a 13 percent increase over the three-week period prior to Sept. 7.
Though Grover Beach showed lower vaccine rates than the county, SLO County as a whole is lagging behind California's vaccination numbers. The LA Times tracker showed that 54.9 percent of the county was fully vaccinated by Sept. 14, while the state rate stood at 58.2 percent.
An Aug. 31 report on the county's COVID-19 website stated that most of the county's positive cases, hospitalizations, and deaths occurred in people who weren't fully vaccinated. Since June 15, they made up almost 80 percent of infections and deaths, and 85.5 percent of hospitalizations.
"We're not in a position to speculate on vaccination hesitancy in our community [Grover Beach] though our vaccination rate continues to increase like elsewhere," Bronson said.
Of the 38 ICU beds available in the SLO County hospitals, 14 are occupied with people who have COVID-19. On Sept. 14, county health officials announced that seven community members aged between 50 and 90 passed away from the disease. It brought the number of COVID-19 associated deaths in SLO to 301.
South County makes up 24 percent of countywide cases.
"There are no plans to impose a lockdown in Grover Beach or elsewhere in the South County as such restrictions would need to come from the state or county. Our focus as a city is to continue encouraging our community to follow public health guidelines and precautions and support each other in bringing this pandemic to a close," Bronson said.
Until the mobile site appears, residents can get vaccinated in Building B of Grover Beach's County Public Health office on 286 South St. Vaccinations take place on Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:15 to 11:15 a.m. and 1:15 to 4:15 p.m. For more information, visit recoverslo.org. Δ