COVID vaccine updates: California on brink of 2 million doses to low-income ZIP codes
Nearly three months into the rollout, California has administered close to 11 million COVID-19 vaccine doses as it works toward a goal of having shots available to everyone 16 and older by the end of spring.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Thursday providers have administered 10,988,301 doses to date, up 215,442 over Wednesday’s total.
CDPH says this daily totals this week have been underreported due to a “data processing latency” issue, and that a more accurate total will be provided later in the week.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its data dashboard reports a higher cumulative total for California of just over 11.2 million doses. The CDC says this includes about 7.6 million people who are partially vaccinated, or 25% of California’s adult population, and more than 3.5 million who are fully vaccinated, about 12%.
According to CDPH, providers across California have been delivered more than 15 million vaccines. About 360,000 more have been shipped by manufacturers but have not yet arrived.
California health officials will change the standards for assignments in the color-coded, four-tier reopening framework once 2 million doses have been administered in the bottom 25% of ZIP codes according to the state’s “Healthy Places Index,” which measures poverty rates and other indicators of availability and quality of health care.
That bottom quartile as of Thursday’s update had received 1,971,784 doses, up about 45,000 from Wednesday. Gov. Gavin Newsom said this week he expects the state to reach 2 million on Friday.
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Wednesday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 355,570 (22,677 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 52,553 (27,216 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 131,667 (32,881 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 65,554 (29,316 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.
Rite Aid announced Thursday that it is expanding eligibility and prioritizing scheduling for teachers, school staff and child care workers in California.
CVS said it would be offering jabs at 119 more of its pharmacies as early as Sunday. That’s in addition to the 167 locations already offering the vaccine in California, as well as 600 Target stores nationwide where CVS has a pharmacy.
Sacramento
▪ Received directly: Not reported.
▪ Administered: 322,691 to Sacramento County residents through last Friday. Of those, 221,107 were first doses and 101,584 were second doses.
Sacramento County has expanded eligibility to farm workers, restaurant employees and janitors as it advances within Phase 1B of the rollout.
The county has earlier this week also announced a new clinic at Bayside Church in midtown on 19th Street, operated by Safeway.
The Bayside clinic offered first doses of the Moderna vaccine Wednesday, with the second-dose clinic set for April 7. On Thursday, it offered the J&J single-dose vaccine.
Sacramento County continues to offer drive-thru vaccine clinics at McClellan Park and Natomas High School; and walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove and at Sacramento State.
All clinics 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, Sacramento State 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.
▪ Administered: 47,618 doses as of Friday morning, according to the county website.
El Dorado announced clinic dates for its South Lake Tahoe health office for the rest of March and early April.
El Dorado recently announced that Robinson’s Pharmacy on Main Street in Placerville is taking appointments through 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 is also partnered with six Safeway stores.
The county last week announced new clinics for El Dorado residents ages 65 and older in the parking structure at Red Hawk Casino in Placerville on Thursdays, 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: 78,370 through Feb. 28. Of those, roughly half were retained by the public health office while the remaining half were transferred to other health providers.
▪ Administered: Not broken down by provider, but Placer says county residents had received 75,981 first doses and 39,440 second doses through the end of February. These include those given at county-run clinics and by hospital systems.
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.
The county is offering Pfizer and Moderna clinics Monday through Thursday this week and one for the J&J one-dose vaccine on Friday. All are fully booked, according to the county website. More information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
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.
Yolo
▪ Received: Not reported since early February.
▪ Administered: 14,085 first doses and 11,737 second doses through March 5, according to the county website.
Yolo County says on its website it had seven clinics set for this week, all of which have been fully booked. Dates for clinics next week have not yet been announced.
Yolo offered private clinics Tuesday and Wednesday for agricultural workers; Wednesday for the incarcerated; and throughout the week for education workers.
Part-public, part-private clinics were also held for those 65 and older as well as child care, grocery and restaurant 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.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients 65 and older, and recently started booking appointments for patients based on occupation. Essential workers in the fields of education, child care, food and agriculture, emergency services, health care and long-term care are all now eligible for shots via Kaiser.
In an update this week, Kaiser Permanente said it had administered about 655,000 of the 860,000 doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 283,000 future appointments scheduled.
Kaiser Permanente says on its website it is offering vaccines to Kaiser members as well as non-members.
Sutter Health said in an update last Friday that it expects to receive the 90,000 doses needed to reschedule second-dose appointments, with about 60,000 expected from the state this week and next while the remaining 30,000 have been dedicated by counties’ health offices.
A Sutter spokeswoman said about 21,000 appointments had to be canceled and were being rescheduled this week. The health system is still canceling first-dose appointments on a rolling basis and has paused booking news ones.
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.
Sutter says it has administered more than 375,000 doses to date.
UC Davis Health is also vaccinating “patients who work in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture” in line with the state’s Phase 1B guidelines, according to its website.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has vaccinated at least 9,375 patients and in recent weeks projected it could vaccinate 18,300 more by the end of this week, 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.
