COVID vaccine update: Sutter Health suspends first-dose appointments, lacking supply
Providers are dealing with supply issues as California’s mass vaccination campaign to combat the COVID-19 pandemic wears on.
In the Sacramento area, the patient website for Sutter Health as of early Friday afternoon says the provider is “currently unable to book appointments for a first vaccination until further notice” due to lack of supply.
Sutter Health expanded eligibility to its patients ages 65 and older a little over a week ago. Those who already received their first jabs will still get their second shots on schedule, the provider says.
Similar problems have arisen elsewhere. The city of Los Angeles recently had to close down six first-dose clinics for at least two days after receiving only 16,000 doses this week, compared to 90,000 last week, with Mayor Eric Garcetti saying he didn’t know the reason for the decrease.
Kaiser Permanente has lamented insufficient supply for its Northern California patients, saying it has about 270,000 patients over age 75 in that territory but through several weeks of rollout has only received enough from the state for half of them.
The California Department of Public Health on its vaccine tracker reported Friday providers have administered 5,511,429 out of 7.96 million doses that have been distributed to hospital systems and local health offices, an increase of 219,936 from Thursday. The total grew by about 202,000 from Wednesday to Thursday.
Local health officers recently aired concerns that the CDPH dashboard represents a significant underreporting of what counties are actually administering, potentially totaling hundreds of thousands of doses across the state. CDPH Director Dr. Tomás Aragón acknowledged the issues this week and said the state is intensely focused “cleaning up the data.”
The state public health numbers also don’t distinguish between first and second doses. According to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, about 79% of California’s shots given have been first doses: about 4.22 million, compared to 1.08 million second doses.
Those numbers mean close to 11% of California’s population, and about 14% of its roughly 31 million adults, have gotten at least one dose.
The COVID-19 vaccines currently available require two shots. Pfizer’s shots should be taken three weeks apart and Moderna’s four weeks apart.
The CDC on its tracking dashboard reported that California through Thursday had administered 13,518 doses for every 100,000 residents. That ranks 33rd among the 50 states and Washington, D.C. A week earlier, California ranked 42nd.
California next week will receive 622,100 first doses, up from 593,700 that were allocated for this week, according to the CDC. The state’s supply has increased about 5% in each of the past two weekly federal allocations.
Here is the latest on vaccine distribution in the Sacramento area:
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Tuesday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 184,719 (11,781 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 26,401 (13,672 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 71,566 (17,872 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 32,427 (14,501doses per 100,000)
Local officials, including Yolo health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson, have cautioned that these represent significant undercounts of the true number of shots that have been administered.
Sacramento-area health offices, public clinics
Local health departments in the capital region are receiving several thousand doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines on a weekly basis, according to each county.
Most county health offices are splitting their direct allocations between their own county-run clinics, non-chain hospitals and other partners, including some Safeway pharmacies.
Counties in which multi-county hospital systems, such as Kaiser Permanente or Sutter Health, have little or no presence may be receiving larger direct allocations relative to their populations, which are then distributed to hospital systems that only operate in a single county.
Sacramento
▪ Phase: 1A (front-line health workers; long-term care residents) and early stages of 1B (adults 65 and older; essential workers in some sectors)
▪ Received directly: 138,225, updated Feb. 5
▪ Administered: 114,089 (83% of received)
Sacramento County’s health department got 16,000 doses of vaccine this week, which are being divvied between its Cal Expo site, private partners and local hospitals.
The county has been told it will receive 18,125 doses next week, about a 13% increase.
The county is offering vaccine appointments at two clinics for those in eligible groups: one at the Sacramento State campus and one at California Northstate University in Elk Grove.
Sacramento County, Dignity Health and UC Davis Health are hosting a drive-through clinic Saturday at Sacramento City College that will administer Moderna doses to 1,500 people ages 65 and older. Recipients must have an appointment before arriving.
Appointment information can be found via the Sacramento County website at dhs.saccounty.net.
Both the Sacramento State and Northstate sites are walk-thru clinics while Urgent Care Now is a drive-thru. All three offer only the Pfizer vaccine, which means a three-week wait for the second dose.
The county has also shared a list of partnering Safeway pharmacies that are offering clinics. Those are open for both health workers in Phase 1A and county residents at least 65 years old.
El Dorado
▪ Phase: 1A and first tier of 1B “with an emphasis on residents 75 and older”
▪ Received: 28,075 doses as of Thursday
▪ Administered: Approximately 22,000 doses (78% of received), according to the county website
El Dorado says it expects to receive another 3,275 doses next week.
Placer
▪ Phase: 1A; first tier of 1B “partially in progress”
▪ Received: 26,975 first doses and 11,625 second doses, for 38,600 total, as of Jan. 31
▪ Administered: 11,302 total first and second doses administered as of Jan. 29, plus an estimated 4,200 last week for an estimated 40% of the received total, according to a monthly COVID-19 update
Placer notes that it re-allocated 14,225 first doses and 6,250 second doses to numerous recipients including Tahoe Forest Hospital, Safeway pharmacies, and, during Phase 1A health worker inoculations, to Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente. Of those not re-allocated, Placer officials say they’ve administered about 86% through last week.
Information on county-run clinics in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Phase: 1A and early 1B, for adults 65 and older
▪ Received: “About 14,025” total first and second doses, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said Monday.
▪ Administered: 7,603 first doses and 2,796 second doses for a total of 10,399 (74% of received) through last Friday, according to the county website.
The county on Friday announced three new clinics set for next week and added new appointment slots to an established one planned for Saturday in Davis.
Yolo is taking first-dose appointments for county residents next Thursday at Pioneer High School in Woodland, Feb. 19 at River City High School in West Sacramento and again at Pioneer High on Feb. 20. All are for Yolo residents ages 65 or older or health care workers in who work in the county.
More details regarding county-run clinics are available on the county website at yolocounty.org.
Hospital systems
Hospital systems operating in multiple counties receive their own allocations from the state.
Most of the earliest of these shots went to health workers, but priority is being expanded to patients in the 65-plus and 75-plus age groups.
Sutter Health opened its appointments to those 65 or older last week, opening centers in Sacramento and Roseville to vaccinate patients.
The provider now says it lacks supply to schedule first-dose appointments “until further notice.” No other details were immediately available, but Sutter Health says second doses for those who received their first shots will proceed on schedule.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group said in a Friday update it has administered 7,300 total vaccine doses, including 3,200 during clinics last weekend.
Mercy Medical Group says it plans to increase capacity to 3,400 first doses and 3,400 second doses per week. It is holding weekly clinics at site in Citrus Heights, Folsom, Midtown and Elk Grove.
The provider says it will be proactively contacting patients who meet the eligibility criteria.
UC Davis Health officials told The Bee early last week that the system had vaccinated more than 22,000 people so far, including more than 11,000 employees and students plus more than 10,000 patients.
It started vaccinations for adults ages 75 and older in mid-January and according to its website is now vaccinating patients 65 and older.
Kaiser Permanente continues to focus initial inoculations on those ages 75 and older due to limited supply, according to its patient website.
Kaiser Permanente opened a vaccination clinic Friday at Sierra College in Rocklin.
“With available supply, the Rocklin site could give up to 1,500 vaccinations a day,” the provider said in an emailed statement.
As of a Tuesday update, Kaiser Permanente says it has received 269,500 doses from the state and given about 251,000 — 93% of them — to patients.
Kaiser Permanente says it has about 693,000 members ages 65 and older living in Northern California, 270,000 of whom are 75 or older.
“We’re starting with adults 75 and older,” the vaccination page on the provider’s website reads.
