On March 2, California Governor Gavin Newsom visited Cuesta College’s vaccination site in his growing efforts to raise awareness about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Cuesta College recently opened up a vaccination site inside their Performing Arts Center on campus in partnership with San Luis Obispo County. This comes almost a year after the campus closed due to the ongoing pandemic. Despite many students and staff being off campus, the college is able to help the county reach more community members who want the vaccine. The Cuesta College vaccination site is one of three in the county, and they have administered almost 1,000 vaccinations to community members per day.

The vaccination site shows the partnership that the county has with multiple sources in the community for distribution efforts. According to San Luis Obispo County supervisor Bruce Gibson, this is another step toward COVID-19 relief for the region

“There’s not just light at the end of this tunnel, there is bright light at the end of this tunnel,” Newsom said. “We’ve now administered 9.3 million doses of vaccines. More than all but six nations in the world. No other state has come this close to administering more doses than the state of California.”

SLO County and the state of California continue their efforts to distribute more vaccines on a weekly basis in hopes of reaching herd immunity.

Newsom continued his praise of SLO County’s ability to distribute the vaccines, and with their continued diligence to follow guidelines, allowed for the county to move into the red tier.

“We have been prioritizing our educators,” Newsom said. “We are really fast tracking that effort, we aren’t waiting for the federal government. No permission. We are moving and driving because we are committed to getting our kids safely back into school. This is a top priority.”

The college hopes to fully reopen campus for the fall semester. With cases and hospitalizations declining rapidly both on the county and state level, this could become a reality.

San Luis Obispo currently has three vaccination sites including Cuesta College, Paso Robles Event Center, and South County Regional Center in Arroyo Grande. 

For more information and continued updates on San Luis Obispo COVID-19 vaccine updates, visit reverslo.org.