COVID vaccine updates: California getting biggest boost yet as federal supply soars
About nine weeks into the mass vaccination campaign to combat the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. supply is ramping up quickly.
The White House on Tuesday announced a 23% leap in the nation’s allocations of vaccine doses, bringing the total to about 13.5 million a week.
California will receive about 23% more first doses next week than this week, according to Tuesday allocation updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state is set to get about 383,000 first doses of Pfizer, an increase by 141,000 from this week, while Moderna doses will be steady at about 380,000.
Those 763,000 first doses will be accompanied by about 485,000 shots shipped as second doses, for a total of about 1.25 million, 13% more than this week’s 1.1 million.
The California Department of Public Health on its vaccine tracker reported Tuesday providers have administered 6,262,781 of the 8.25 million doses distributed to hospital systems and health offices, an increase by 751,352 since last Friday for an average of about 188,000 shots per day.
The state public health numbers don’t distinguish between first and second doses. According to CDC vaccination data, just over 4.7 million people have received at least one dose in California, which means about 12% of the state’s 40 million residents are at least partially vaccinated.
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 California through Monday administered 15,719 doses for every 100,000 residents. The state continues to rank 33rd among the 50 states and Washington, D.C., as it did late last week.
Local health officers in recent weeks have aired concerns that the CDPH dashboard represents a significant underreporting of what counties are actually administering.
The state this week is handing off its vaccine administration to a third party — insurance company Blue Shield, through a $15 million contract that was made available Monday.
The agreement is one of two planned to help centralize the state’s distribution network. The other involves Kaiser Permanente, though that contract has not been released.
The Blue Shield contract includes a number of goals for improvement, including having capacity to distribute 3 million doses per week by March 1 and to have providers administer 95% of doses within the same week.
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 Monday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 211,039 (13,459 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 30,395 (15,741 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 80,656 (20,142 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 37,911 (16,954 doses per 100,000)
Local officials, including Yolo health officer Dr. Aimee Sisson, have cautioned these may represent significant undercounts of the true number of shots that have been administered, due to data reporting delays and other issues.
Sacramento-area health offices, public clinics and pharmacies
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 with little or no presence from hospital systems such as Sutter Health or Kaiser Permanente may get larger direct allocations relative to their populations, which are then distributed to smaller hospital systems.
In the past few days, CVS and Rite Aid have begun offering vaccine appointments at some of their pharmacies across California, including some in Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties, as part of a federal retail pharmacy partnership.
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)
The local health department says Sacramento County is now vaccinating education and child care workers along with law enforcement, emergency services and residents 65 and older.
Sacramento County’s health department got 16,000 doses of vaccine last week and was told it will receive 18,125 doses this week, about a 13% increase.
The county is offering vaccine appointments at two clinics for those in eligible groups at the Sacramento State campus and at California Northstate University in Elk Grove. The county is also partnering with Safeway pharmacies, and some CVS and Rite Aid stores are offering shots in partnership with the federal program.
The university clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses; Safeway, CVS and Rite Aid pharmacies are offering Moderna, a four-week wait.
Recipients must have an appointment before arriving. Appointment information can be found via the Sacramento County website at dhs.saccounty.net, and at the CVS and Rite Aid websites.
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 County says that as of Sunday it has one retail pharmacy participating in the federal program: the CVS store on Palmer Drive in Cameron Park. Appointments can be made through the CVS website or CVS pharmacy app.
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
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin.
Information on county-run clinics and safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Phase: 1A and early 1B, for adults 65 and older
▪ Received: 15,800 total first and second doses, county spokeswoman Carolyn Jhajj said last Thursday.
▪ Administered: 8,977 first doses and 3,330 second doses for a total of 12,307 (78% of received) through last Wednesday, according to the county website.
Yolo announced Tuesday morning it has will begin distributing vaccine doses to Phase 1B essential workers including teachers and child care, emergency services and food and agriculture.
The county has a clinic scheduled for essential workers for this coming Saturday in Woodland, and a pilot clinic this Wednesday for 200 workers at a local farm. Future farmworker clinics will be scheduled “at various worksites,” the county said in a news release.
“While not all residents ages 65 and older have been offered vaccinate yet, demand has begun to slow. This is likely a result of the gradual increase in weekly vaccine supply and the number of available vaccine providers,” the county news release said. “For this reason, the Yolo County Health Officer has decided to expand vaccine distribution to frontline workers.”
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 earlier in February, opening centers in Sacramento and Roseville to vaccinate patients.
But since late last week, the provider says on its patient website that 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 in early February that the system has vaccinated more than 22,000 people, 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.
Kaiser Permanente said as of Feb. 10 it had received 269,500 doses from the state and injected about 261,000 — 97% of them — in 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.
This story was originally published February 16, 2021 at 12:16 PM.
