now, we talked to blue shield ceo paul markovich exclusively yesterday and we still had more questions and wanted to dig in more. over the next few weeks all nine bay area counties will be phased into blue shield's vaccination network. solano and sonoma county are first, making the transition in wave two on march 7th. the seven other bay area counties transition last in wave three on march 14th, partly due to having lower rates of covid cases. >> we're vaccinating people in the right sequence. >> reporter: blue shield ceo paul markovich explains the company is using an algorithm that determines dose allocation for counties and providers based on infection rates and vulnerable demographic areas. >> what is the infection rate for covid-19 as a percentage of the population? what's the death rate for covid-19 as a percentage of the population? what percentage of the population lives in the lowest quartile healthy places indices tracks? because we know they're at the highest risk. >> reporter: markovich pointed out the company does not have the authority to determine how much vaccine alloca

and that's really the key part of our role. >> paul markovich says their goal is to vaccinate 25 million people by the summer. how is blue shield deciding which counties and health care providers receive a certain amount of doses? >> the priorities of the state and which populations are in the highest priority. for example, of over 65 is a part of your eligible population and certain employment sectors are, what percentage of the population in a given county is made up of the eligible population? >> reporter: but it turns out that if california decides they don't agree with blue shield's recommendations, they can simply change their vaccine distribution plan. >> the state continues to make decisions on how this gets allocated. but blue shield is making recommendations. >> reporter: blue shield's ceo says they're prioritizing their vaccine allocation plan based on what is a death rate for covid-19 in comparison to the percentage of the population of every region. their goal is to take over california's system by the end of march. they're also starting with the central valley first. luz pe

the company's ceo, paul markovich sat down with abc 7 news and he said the main goal is to track vaccinesm the moment they arrive from the federal government to the time they are injected into arms. >> if we can get the system to run at optimum efficiency and smoothly, it means we're going to get the maximum vaccine to californians, we're going to get the right people vaccinated in the right order. and folks on the ground, providers, will be able to have predictability and know how to schedule appointments and honor them. >> markovich says their goal is to vaccinate 25 million californians by summer. you can see our full interview with him right now on our apps for your connected tv, including how blue shield is planning to make sure providers get the right amount of doses. you can download the app for your appletv, android tv, amazon fire tv, and roku by searching abc 7 bay area. >>> the cdc is set to release new guidelines for those who have been vaccinated against covid-19. the cdc is expected to recommend that people still limit interactions to small gatherings and still wear their ma