Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to promote vaccinations against COVID-19, as more than 80% of eligible Californians 12 and older have received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Underscoring the Federal Drug Administration’s full approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for those 12 and older, the governor encouraged unvaccinated Californians to protect themselves and their communities from the Delta variant and do their part to help bring an end to the pandemic.

“Getting vaccinated is the key to protecting against COVID-19 and the faster-spreading Delta variant – it’s how we end this thing,” Newsom said. “California has put more shots in arms than any other state. We’ve made incredible progress vaccinating our population in a remarkably short amount of time, and our work continues to close the gap in our most impacted communities.”

The state has implemented vaccine verification or testing requirements for state government employees and school staff, and vaccination requirements for workers in health care settings. Since first implementing the measures, the state has seen significant progress, with five straight weeks of more than 500,000 vaccines administered. Last week, California administered more than 643,000 vaccinations, marking a 44.7% increase compared to mid-July. The state continues to lead the nation, with 48 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine administered.

California is also encouraging private businesses and local governments across the state to follow the state’s lead and adopt vaccine verification systems for employees, a move that has been followed by some of the state’s largest public and private employers.

For information, visit gov.ca.gov.