Despite supply uncertainty, is Sacramento near turning point in COVID vaccine rollout?
Sacramento County’s top health official said this week she sees March as a possible shifting point for the positive in the effort to push past the year-long coronavirus pandemic, thanks to modest growth in local vaccinations and the possibility of increased dosage shipments, coupled with continued decreases in the number of new cases and hospitalizations.
But those hopes are muted by continued limited supplies of doses, a problem that has varied widely in intensity — some providers have not made note of any issue, while others like Sutter Health have had to cancel scheduled second-dose appointments.
More than 300,000 vaccine doses have now been administered in Sacramento County, health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said. She said she expects the county to begin receiving shipments of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but said she has not yet heard from the state when and how many doses Sacramento will get.
“The more people vaccinated, the more protection we have,” Kasirye said. “That will give us more confidence in opening up more (schools, restaurants and other businesses). But right now, people must be vigilant.”
The county and state plan several expansions of the groups of people who are eligible for the vaccine this month.
On March 15, people under age 65 with underlying conditions are likely to begin being allowed to sign up for vaccines by their health care providers, she said, following state guidelines.
That will cause some logistical problems, and some people may face delays.
“The demand (will) still be much greater than the amount of vaccine available,” Kasirye said.
Sacramento County also hopes to announce a plan to get vaccines to food and agricultural workers a few days before March 15, Kasirye said.
Kasirye said the county is working with community groups on a plan it hopes to finalize in a week on how to reach out to farm workers in particular. That plan likely will focus on setting up a series of pop-up clinics, some of that at work sites, some of them in communities were there are higher numbers of agricultural workers.
Kasirye said residents should not worry about whether they get the Pfizer, Moderna or J&J vaccines, downplaying the difference in the efficacy rates. The first two vaccines were not tested, for instance, against newer strains of the virus, like the J&J vaccine was.
“All the vaccines have been shown to be effective,” she said.
The main point people should have in mind, she said, is to get a shot when and where they can. “We have limited supplies. The vaccine that is available to you (in the moment) is the best one for you to get. People will not necessarily have an option.”
California vaccine progress by the numbers
California has in recent days averaged well over 200,000 shots per day in its campaign to mass vaccinate against COVID-19, with supply ramping up by the week and a third vaccine set to become available within days.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Tuesday providers have administered 9,313,799 doses, an increase of 225,900 over Monday’s total. The state on Monday increased the total by just over 315,000, but said in a disclaimer that this tally included 90,000 doses administered but not previously reported, discovered via data auditing.
The numbers from CDPH don’t distinguish between first and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that over 6.5 million Californians have received at least one dose, and about 2.9 million have had both doses.
That means about 21% of the state’s adult population are at least partially vaccinated and 10% of adults are fully vaccinated.
CDPH data updated Tuesday show just over 12 million doses as “delivered” to vaccine providers, which are mainly local health offices and hospital systems. About 225,000 additional doses have been shipped by manufacturers but haven’t yet arrived, according to CDPH.
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: 312,009 (19,899 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 45,514 (23,570 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 116,291 (29,041 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 56,793 (25,398 doses per 100,000)
Local officials have cautioned these may represent 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
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.
CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens offer 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: Partial 1B (adults 65 and older; essential workers in some sectors)
▪ Received directly: Not reported.
▪ Administered: 270,824 to Sacramento County residents through last Friday. Of those, 189,190 were first doses and 81,634 were second doses.
Sacramento County offers drive-thru vaccine clinics at McClellan Park and Natomas High School; and walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, Sacramento City Unified School District’s Serna Center, Del Campo High School and 11 partnering Safeway pharmacies.
All require appointments in advance. Scheduling and booking information can be found at dhs.saccounty.net. Residents can sign up online for all except the Natomas High clinic; for that, residents must call 916-561-5253 on Mondays between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to make an appointment, according to the county.
The McClellan Park and Northstate clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses.
Sacramento County also has CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores participating in the federal partnership program.
On Monday, SacRT began offering free rides for COVID-19 vaccination appointments.
El Dorado
▪ Phase: 1B “with an emphasis on residents 75 and older”
▪ Received: 38,390 total doses as of Feb. 22.
▪ Administered: Approximately 23,000 doses as of Feb. 22, according to the county website. Remaining doses “are earmarked for already-scheduled clinics and appointments,” the county says.
Information regarding county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics in El Dorado can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
▪ Received: Not updated since late January.
▪ Administered: Not updated since late January.
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville.
The Grounds clinic is open for Placer County residents ages 65 and older as well as those in Phase 1A and 1B who are employed in Placer County.
Placer is also partnered with eight Safeway pharmacies throughout the county.
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin. Appointments have also been made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
More information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Received: At least 15,800 total doses, last updated Feb. 11.
▪ Administered: 11,837 first doses and 7,455 second doses through last Thursday. Clinics from this past weekend will grow both totals, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said in a video briefing Monday.
Yolo has private clinics planned this week for teachers, child care workers, law enforcement and food and agriculture workers, with public clinics set for this coming weekend, according to the county website.
A public clinic for Phase 1A and Phase 1B residents on Saturday and another on Sunday for child care workers are each fully booked. Another public clinic for child care 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.
Sutter Health continues to pause first-dose appointments, citing “extremely limited supply,” after opening those for residents 65 and older for about a week in early February.
Sutter Health officials told The Bee that the provider may need to cancel as many as 90,000 second-dose appointments across the health system.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients 65 and older after earlier lack of supply had kept appointments limited to those 75 and older for the first several weeks of the rollout.
In an update last week, Kaiser Permanente said it has administered about 404,000 of the 480,000 doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 178,000 future appointments scheduled.
UC Davis Health last week began vaccinating “patients who work in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture” in line with the state’s Phase 1B guidelines.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has vaccinated at least 9,375 patients to date and projects it can vaccinate 18,300 more by March 14, supply pending.
“We are working on a plan for outreach to our patients with medical conditions qualifying them for vaccine in mid-March,” the provider says on its website.
