Sacramento will move into COVID-19 red tier on Wednesday, state officials say
Sacramento County is among 13 California counties expected to move into the state’s less-restrictive “red tier” on Wednesday, state health officials disclosed. Another 13 counties, including Placer, have the green light to move into the red on Sunday.
The announcement Friday afternoon by the California Department of Public Health represents the largest COVID-19 pandemic-related reopening in California since last summer, and means the four-county Sacramento metropolitan area can allow more openings, including indoor restaurant dining and more schools. El Dorado and Yolo have already moved to the red tier. Yuba and Sutter counties also are expected to gain approval next week to move into the state’s red tier.
The announcement comes after recent drops in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, statewide and locally in the Sacramento region. Those downward trends, though, have eased up in recent days, prompting some concern that the public could relaxing its guard.
Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said the likely move to the red tier is good news for local residents and the economy, but she said she is continuing to push for people to treat the pandemic as a serious threat and to be “vigilant.”
“It means a lot,” she said. “We’ve been in the purple tier since November. We know schools are anxious to get started, the middle and high schools. And restaurants and gyms will be able to open.
“So, I think everybody will be happy to see red.”
State health officials said they will formally announce the tier changes on Tuesday, and those changes will go into effect on Wednesday. Placer County is among the counties that move into the red tier on Sunday, officials announced Friday.
Sacramento is still struggling, however, to get doses of the vaccine. Once again, health officials got the disappointing news that the county will only directly receive 15,000 doses, none from Johnson & Johnson, which has halted shipments nationwide of its single-dose vaccine due to a manufacturing issue.
Kasirye said Sacramento is still pushing the state for more doses, and she hopes the county is now a couple of weeks away from significant increase.
On Monday, eligibility will include those ages 16 to 64 with medical conditions, along with the homeless. The state is also expanding the emergency services category of essential workers to include public transit employees and social workers.
“We can use more (supply), the demand is definitely there,” she said. “We have the capacity. Our hospitals have teams in place. We have additional sites we can open.”
New pop-up vaccine site in Meadowview
Kasirye spoke at a pop-up vaccine site Friday at the Pannell Community Center, where the focus is vaccinating people in the lowest-income neighborhoods.
Sacramento County Supervisor Patrick Kennedy expressed some frustration with the lack of doses, but also expressed appreciation for the massive effort now underway nationally, much of it being organized on the fly.
“We’re at the whim of the federal government (on doses),” he said. But, he said, it’s going well considering “we are building the plane as we fly it.”
Mai Vang, the Sacramento City Council representative for the Meadowview area, said some 1,000 people were expected to be inoculated there on Friday, and that she hopes to persuade the county to continue with more Friday pop-ups at the site going forward.
Vang said 90% of the people signed up for shots at Meadowview on Friday are from Black, Asian, Latino, Pacific Islander and indigenous communities, and that about half are not fully proficient in English.
“I don’t think you see that at other vaccinations clinics around Sacramento,” Vang said. “This is one of the most linguistically diverse vaccination events in the city of Sacramento.”
The city and county relied on 14 community-based non-profit groups and churches to get the word out and get people signed up — notably, many who do not have internet access. That has been a sticking point in California during the early rollout, where most sign-ups have been done online.
Some people in these communities do not trust government, Vang said.
“Partnering with our folks on the ground, our community-based organizations, our trusted messengers, that is how we are going to reach our hardest-to-reach communities,” she said.
The county began inoculating people with an initial allotment of 5,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday, first in Natomas and in Del Paso Heights. The one-shot nature of the J&J shot makes it easier to apply, especially to workers and others who are harder to reach, Kasirye said.
Studies suggest the J&J shot is effective in keeping recipients out of the hospital, and will virtually eliminate the chance that a COVID-19 infection will end in death.
“Our plan is to use it especially in those situations where it is difficult to get someone back for a second dose. Inmates, the homeless, the farmworkers, also people who are homebound.
“What I am pleased about is the few places we have used it (J&J), there has been a lot of enthusiasm because it is one dose. That is very encouraging.”
Biden’s directive
President Joe Biden in a Thursday evening address directed states to make the COVID-19 vaccine eligible to all adults beginning May 1, a couple of months ahead of projections shared earlier this year for when that might happen.
The instruction comes as U.S. vaccine supply is expected to ramp up significantly later in March and in April with boosts from all three approved manufacturers — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.
Approaching three months into the rollout, California’s vaccine campaign has accelerated, but progress has been uneven at times. Frequent shifts in eligibility have caused confusion, and local providers in various parts of the state — including Sutter Health and the Sacramento County public health office — have recently cited supply shortages.
Still, a message added to the state’s COVID-19 vaccination webpage earlier this month promises: “Every Californian 16 and up will have access to vaccines this spring.”
California has been vaccinating residents ages 65 and older, along with some sectors of essential workers including health care, education, food and agriculture and emergency services.
The state also has recently shifted focus to equity, with the Newsom administration in early March pledging to double allotments to disadvantaged areas — those ranking in the bottom quartile of the state’s Healthy Places Index, which measures quality and availability of health care based on a number of socioeconomic factors.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said earlier this week that California is expected Friday to surpass the benchmark of administering 2 million doses to this bottom quartile, which state health officials have said will trigger a loosening of criteria to join the looser “red” tier within the economic reopening framework.
The state’s daily update to its vaccination numbers was delayed from its normal 11 a.m. release to 3 p.m. Friday. If the afternoon update shows California’s bottom HPI quartile at 2 million doses, the formal update to the tier list may come Saturday. That update could see up to a dozen counties including Placer retroactively placed into the red tier.
California on Monday will expand eligibility to people ages 16 through 64 with medical conditions — a cohort the state estimates at 4.4 million people.
The president clarified in Thursday’s speech that expanding eligibility won’t mean all 250 million-plus U.S. adults will be able to immediately get their jabs in May.
But it does mean they should be able to start getting in line.
California vaccination by the numbers
Monday will mark exactly three months since California first began injecting the COVID-19 vaccine.
The state injected about 11 million doses. CDPH on its online vaccine data tracker reported Thursday providers have administered 10,988,301 doses to date.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday that 7.6 million people in California are at least partially vaccinated and about 3.5 million are fully vaccinated. That means 25% of the state’s adult population has had at least one dose, roughly equal to the nationwide rate, while 11.6% are fully vaccinated, below the U.S. average of 13.3%.
According to CDPH, providers have been delivered just over 15 million doses and another 360,000 have been shipped by manufacturers but hadn’t yet arrived as of Thursday morning.
Newsom said earlier this week that the state expects modest increases to its federal allocation, up to about 1.75 million doses next week and about 1.8 million the week after that.
California and its third-party administrator, insurance company Blue Shield, have set goals of the state having capacity to administer 3 million doses a week by March and 4 million per month by the end of April. Federal supply has not yet caught up to those goals, but should come closer once J&J shipments resume.
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.
This story was originally published March 12, 2021 at 12:14 PM.
