COVID-19 Vaccine

How to Get Vaccinated

Everyone 16 years of age and older is now eligible for a vaccination, Click here (link is external) to learn how to schedule a vaccination appointment based upon your health care provider. Santa Cruz County's Public Health Division is following California State Department of Public Health and Center for Disease Control guidelines to prioritize COVID-19 vaccine eligibility. The City is not distributing or administering vaccines. 

Remember

Regardless of your vaccination status, you should still take steps to protect yourself and others:

• Wear a mask when in public
• Stay at least 6 feet away from others
• Avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces 

Information from the Center of Disease Control (CDC):

Vaccine Safety

Millions of people in the United States have received COVID-19 vaccines, and these vaccines have undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. This monitoring includes using both established and new safety monitoring systems to make sure that COVID-19 vaccines are safe. These vaccines cannot give you COVID-19. 

CDC has developed a new tool, v-safe, to help us quickly find any safety issues with COVID-19 vaccines. V-safe is a smartphone-based, after-vaccination health checker for people who receive COVID-19 vaccines. To learn more about v-safe, click here.  

After COVID-19 vaccination, you may have some side effects. These are normal signs that your body is building protection. The side effects from COVID-19 vaccination, such as chills or tiredness, may affect your ability to do daily activities, and they should go away in a few days. 

What Changes Once You've Been Fully Vaccinated? 

People are considered fully vaccinated:

• 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
• 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine

If it has been less than 2 weeks since your 1-dose shot, or if you still need to get your second dose of a 2-dose vaccine, you are NOT fully protected. Keep taking all prevention steps until you are fully vaccinated.

If you’ve been fully vaccinated:

• You can gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.
• You can gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
• If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19, you do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.