COVID vaccine updates: More doses for teachers, storms delay shipments to California
California has in recent weeks administered tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine doses a day, but the immediate outlook remains uncertain as fierce winter weather continues to impact U.S. distribution chains.
Yolo County was the latest in the Sacramento region to announce delivery delays will disrupt clinics and appointments next week.
“Due to the severe winters storms impacting the US, vaccine deliveries have been delayed to states and counties, including Yolo County. This delay is why the County has not yet advertised vaccine clinics for the week of February 22,” the county said in a Friday update to its COVID-19 webpage.
“As soon as deliveries come in, the County will be scheduling clinics and notifying the public through the County’s website, partners, and social media accounts.”
On Thursday, local providers Sutter Health and Kaiser Permanente confirmed that they have had to cut back on shots administered this week due to delivery delays.
“We are in contact with federal and state health officials to track these delays and our operations teams are working to minimize any potential impact to the administration of vaccine at our facilities,” a Kaiser Permanente spokesperson told The Bee.
Gov. Gavin Newsom during a Friday news conference in Oakland announced that the state will be setting aside 10% of its vaccine first doses for teachers and child care workers beginning March 1, starting with a baseline of 75,000 doses.
The California Department of Public Health on its vaccine tracker reported Friday providers have administered 6,929,976 of the 8.8 million doses distributed to hospital systems and health offices, a daily increase of 230,817 doses. From Wednesday to Thursday, the state reported administering about 264,000 doses.
It remains unclear what portion of daily increases may come from cleaning up lingering data issues from earlier days and weeks. Local health officers have aired concerns that the CDPH dashboard was showing significant underreporting of what counties were actually injecting.
The state data dashboard appears to now reflect the current supply delay. The number of doses denoted as “shipped,” meaning en route from manufacturers but not yet delivered to providers in California, has typically outnumbered the “delivered” tally by at least a couple hundred thousand, but on Friday the shipped total was only about 30,000 higher. This suggests a significant slowdown in the delivery flow.
The state public health numbers don’t distinguish between first and second doses. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated Thursday, nearly 4.9 million people have received at least one dose in California, which means more than 12% of the state’s 40 million residents are at least partially vaccinated. Close to 1.6 million, about 4% of the state’s population, are fully 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 Wednesday has administered 16,441 doses for every 100,000 residents. The state ranks 31st among the 50 states and Washington, D.C by this measure, an increase from 33rd the previous few days.
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 Thursday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 232,583 (14,833 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 34,204 (17,713 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 88,830 (22,183 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 41,706 (18,651 doses per 100,000)
Local officials, including Yolo County 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 major 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. The county is not yet vaccinating food and agriculture workers.
County spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno said if next week’s shipments don’t arrive by Friday, “there is a plan in place to work with healthcare provider partners to reallocate doses to avoid appointment disruption — with an emphasis on second doses, if needed.”
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 Feb. 11
▪ Administered: Approximately 22,000 doses (78% of received), according to the county website
The county announced Tuesday it is opening a clinic for El Dorado residents 75 and older. It will be a drive-thru clinic held Feb. 27 on an appointment-only basis. Appointments can be made using calvax.org.
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: Not updated since late January.
▪ Administered: Not updated since late January.
Placer County has not announced dates for first-dose clinics next week.
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin.
Appointments are also being made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
Information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Received: At least 15,800 total first and second doses, county spokeswoman Carolyn Jhajj said Feb. 11.
▪ Administered: 9,391 first doses and 6,190 second doses through Monday, 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.
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.
Sutter Health opened its appointments to those 65 or older earlier in February, opening centers in Sacramento and Roseville to vaccinate patients, but had to stop booking those appointments late last week due to lack of supply.
Weather delays across the U.S. have exacerbated the supply issue.
“We scaled rapidly and have the capacity to vaccinate tens of thousands of patients a day throughout our footprint, but our ability to do so remains dependent on vaccine supply,” Sutter Health spokeswoman Liz Madison said Thursday. “As soon as more vaccine is made available to us, we will reopen appointments.”
Sutter Health has administered more than 260,000 doses of vaccine to date to health care workers and patients ages 65 and older, Madison said.
Kaiser Permanente continues to focus initial inoculations on those ages 75 and older due to limited supply, according to its patient website.
According to its website, Kaiser Permanente through Friday morning has received just over 351,000 doses for Northern California. It has administered about 320,000 of them (91%), and has 144,000 future appointments already scheduled.
“We’re starting with adults 75 and older,” the vaccination page on the provider’s website reads.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group said in a Feb. 12 update it has administered 7,300 total vaccine doses, including 3,200 during clinics the preceding 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 sites 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 Sacramento 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.
