California hits 10 million doses of COVID vaccine. But the equity gap is clear
Ten million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have now been injected across California, a major milestone as the state and nation work toward a goal of having vaccinations available for all adults before summer arrives.
But recent health equity data shared by the state make clear that there has been a large disparity between vaccination rates in socioeconomically disadvantaged areas compared to affluent communities.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Friday providers have administered 10,003,942 doses to date. The one-day increase of 330,115 doses included about 136,000 reported by providers Tuesday and Wednesday but not processed into the state’s system due to a technical issue, meaning the true daily increase was about 194,000.
CDPH on Thursday began providing more detailed information on how many Californians are fully vs. partially vaccinated, as well as breakdowns of how many first and second doses have been administered in communities within the four quartiles of the state’s “Healthy Places Index.”
The HPI measures quality of health in the state’s ZIP codes based on a number of factors, including poverty rates.
State data updated Friday showed just over 1.75 million doses — 18% of the statewide total — have gone to the lowest HPI quartile. That compares to nearly 3.1 million shots, or 32%, for the top quartile.
Equitable vaccine distribution would see all four quartiles close to 25%. The middle two quartiles track closer to that, at 23.2% for the second-lowest quartile and 27.4% for the second-highest quartile.
Statewide, about 21% of the 16-plus population has been fully vaccinated and 10% partially vaccinated, according to the latest CDPH data.
The portion of residents ages 16 and older in the top quartile who are partially vaccinated is 27% and the segment who have been fully vaccinated is almost exactly half that at 13.5%. For the lowest quartile, those rates are 15.4% and 6.4%, respectively.
Because of this discrepancy, Gov. Gavin Newsom and state health officials announced this week that California will begin allocating 40% of its vaccine supply to communities in this lowest HPI quartile.
“We know these communities are the ones in every county that have shouldered the worst of the disease,” state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly told reporters Thursday morning.
CDPH also announced a change to the tier structure, which will loosen the threshold for all counties to move from the most restrictive purple tier into the red tier, carrying important implications for business and school reopenings.
The change will begin once California has injected 2 million total doses in the lowest HPI quartile — about 250,000 more than Friday’s count — and it will raise the case rate criteria for the red tier from seven daily cases per 100,000 residents up to 10 per 100,000. Ghaly said Thursday he expects this to happen within a week or two.
The state surpasses 10 million doses as providers have received a total of about 13 million, according to the CDPH data tracker, meaning the state has injected about 77% of its allocation.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California remains near the middle of the pack by this measure; as of Thursday’s update, its percentage of delivered doses administered ranked 32nd among the 50 states plus Washington, D.C.
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: 331,589 (21,148 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 48,737 (25,240 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 123,264 (30,783 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 61,659 (27,574 doses per 100,000)
Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.
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 a walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove.
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 county is also partnered with 11 Safeway pharmacies.
The McClellan Park and Northstate clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses. Safeway pharmacies offer Moderna, a four-week wait.
Sacramento County also has CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores participating in the federal partnership program.
El Dorado
▪ Phase: 1B “with an emphasis on residents 75 and older”
▪ Received: 48,370 total doses, including 1,100 of the new Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
▪ Administered: 47,618 doses as of Friday morning, according to the county website.
The county’s reported total for doses administered exceeds the “received” inventory because the former includes retail pharmacies included in the federal partnership, according to county spokeswoman Carla Hass.
El Dorado announced a new pharmacy offering COVID-19 vaccines: Robinson’s, on Main Street in Placerville. Appointments can be made using CalVax, the state’s online vaccine registration system.
Walgreens in Cameron Park and the CVS store on Palmer Drive in Cameron Park are also now offering Moderna vaccine appointments as part of the federal retail pharmacy partnership.
The county earlier this week also announced new clinics for El Dorado residents ages 65 and older in the parking structure at Red Hawk Casino in Placerville on Thursday, also available through CalVax.
More detailed information on county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
▪ Received: Not reported since late January.
▪ Administered: Not reported since late January.
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville. Appointments are required in advance.
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. There may also be availability at Rite Aid and Walgreens stores; users should check with individual stores for eligibility, the county says.
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: 12,700 first doses and 8,209 second doses through Feb. 26 according to Tan, the county spokeswoman.
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. All are fully booked.
Dates have not yet been announced for clinics next week.
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 has paused first-dose appointments and is beginning to reschedule some of the 90,000 second-dose appointments it recently started to cancel or postpone due to “extremely limited supply.”
Sutter Health in a statement Thursday evening says it still needs about 30,000 more doses allocated from the state to ensure it has supply for these appointments without exceeding the six-week window between first and second doses of Pfizer and Moderna allowed by the CDC and CDPH.
The provider opened appointments to its patients ages 65 and older for about a week in early February before supply issues forced new appointments to be suspended.
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 this week, Kaiser Permanente said it has administered about 520,000 of the 602,000 doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 230,000 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.
