California’s COVID-19 vaccine allocation about to get a boost

California's coronavirus rates continue to decline from the peak of a major winter surge, and there is also good news on the COVID-19 vaccine front.

The state next week will get about 77,000 more doses than it did this week or last week, about a 16% increase in supply allocated by the federal government. President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday announced a nationwide supply boost from 8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million doses per week, which is also about a 16% increase.

Allocation data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show California will receive

about 1,000 fewer Pfizer doses next week compared to this week, but Moderna doses will increase by 78,000, from 244,000 to 322,000.

As California's mass vaccination campaign remains off to a sluggish start, marred by data reporting issues, health officials at the state and local level have expressed concern about inadequate supply.

The state is catching up, though. CDPH reports that statewide, more than 2.58 million doses have been administered out of about 4.7 million that have been shipped to local health departments and hospital systems.

That's 55% of received doses administered, which

remains far less than ideal but is an increase from about two weeks ago, when the state had given fewer than 40% of its shots.

State epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said last week during a vaccine advisory committee meeting that California was getting about 400,000 to 500,000 doses per week, a pace that would take through June for the full vaccination of those ages 65 and older. The Moderna boost increases next week's total to about 563,000, up from the 486,000 it was allocated both this week and last week.

To date, more than 3.15 million Californians have tested positive for COVID-19 and at least 37,527 have died.

Virus deaths have recently come at a pace of about 500 per day, but all other metrics — new cases, test positivity rate, hospitalizations and the number of patients in intensive care unit beds — have all been declining consistently for at least the past two weeks, CDPH data show.

Health officials continue to urge that residents follow mask and social distancing protocols, and avoid gatherings, to ensure transmission rates stay low — especially as new genetic variants of COVID-19 emerge globally that scientists believe may be more infectious.