Vaccine update: Why newly-eligible groups may still have to wait in the Sacramento area
Californians ages 16 to 64 with severe obesity, who are pregnant or who have a number of other medical conditions or disabilities are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. But supply issues may hinder your chances of getting a shot right away.
“The increase in people eligible does not mean we get an increase in shipments,” Sacramento County health department spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno said. “It just makes it more competitive to get an appointment.”
Yolo County Health Officer Aimee Sisson issued a similar warning Monday.
“It is important to keep in mind that while we are expanding the number of people who are eligible for vaccine, the vaccine supply is not increasing,” she wrote. “Not everybody who is eligible will be able to receive a vaccine right away.”
UC Davis Health spokeswoman Pamela Wu said Monday that health system doesn’t have enough doses to move forward yet with the new age group.
“Unfortunately, the low and unpredictable vaccine supply does not allow us to support the newly eligible groups at this time,” she said. “Due to supply limitations, we’re currently vaccinating fewer than 1,000 people per day; if we had more vaccine, we could be vaccinating more than 3,000 people per day. As eager as people are to get the vaccine, we are just as eager to provide it.”
Kaiser Permanente, the biggest health care provider in the state and in the Sacramento region, is moving forward with vaccination appointments for people in the high-risk 16-64 group, but warned the going could be slow.
“We expect that in the weeks ahead demand will continue to be greater than supply.” Kaiser, which has been given a larger share of doses by the state, issued a reminder Monday that non-Kaiser members can apply for a vaccine appointment at Kaiser as well.
The state as of now has opened vaccinations to a wide group of people, including teachers, farm workers and other essential workers, as well as anyone older than 65. Additionally, state guidelines on vaccine eligibility were recently updated to include public transit workers, janitors, homeless people and a few other classifications.
The changes represent some of the broadest expansions yet of the state and local vaccination programs — and also present some of the biggest logistical problems.
Estimates shown on the state’s health department website say there are 15 million Californians across phases 1A and 1B of distribution, and about 4.4 million ages 16 through 64 with qualifying medical conditions.
The amount of overlap — essential workers ages 16 to 64 with medical conditions — is not clear, but even with substantial overlap, Monday’s expansion would push eligibility to more than above 40% of California’s total population and more than half of its roughly 31 million adults.
Sacramento-area health officials are suggesting that people with health insurance apply for vaccines given by their health provider, because those providers know whether or not the person has a qualifying condition.
Sacramento County on Monday revamped its own vaccination appointment application website to simplify it and to include the 16-64 age group.
Honor system?
People with medical conditions are not required to provide outside verification, according to the California Department of Public Health, due to confidentiality concerns, but will be asked to sign a self-attestation saying they meet qualifying criteria.
Local health officials including in Sacramento and Yolo counties say their clinics are not asking for proof of underlying conditions.
“To protect patient confidentiality, we don’t ask for verification” that the person has a qualifying underlying condition, Sacramento County spokeswoman Bongiorno said. “The person just needs to sign to attest that what they are saying is true.
“The whole idea is to get people vaccinated. (Most) people realize the importance of waiting their turn.”
Vaccine supply increase in April
With the nation’s mass vaccination effort against COVID-19 gaining traction and California now expanding eligibility to new groups, the state expects big boosts to its supply next month.
The chief executive of Blue Shield of California, which has been hired by the state as a third-party administrator for vaccine distribution, said Friday the state’s allotment of doses should ramp up significantly in April.
CEO Paul Markovich, on a Zoom call with reporters, said the state’s weekly allotment from the federal government, currently at about 1.6 million doses, is expected to grow to 2.5 million next month.
He said most of the growth will reflect increased shipments of the newest vaccine, the single-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson.
Authorized for emergency use near the end of February, the J&J shot rolled out with more than 300,000 doses going to California in early March. But a manufacturing issue has halted shipments, and providers have said they are not expecting more of the J&J vaccine until around late March.
“By the month of April we should see a pretty big increase in supply,” Markovich said.
Even so, the weekly shipments will still fall well short of California’s capacity to give the vaccines to residents, he said. Blue Shield has stated a goal of having the state able to administer 4 million shots a week before the end of April.
Markovich pushed back on reports that many California counties are upset with the state’s decision to hire Blue Shield, saying they simply are reluctant to sign a contract with a private insurer. Instead, they’ll be allowed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the state, he said, and Blue Shield believes the counties will agree to do so.
His remarks belied what officials in several counties, including San Joaquin and Los Angeles, have been saying — that the Blue Shield arrangement adds a layer of bureaucracy to a system that’s already been criticized for running too slowly.
Markovich said that before his company stepped in, the state lacked up-to-date information on vaccination inventories. That led to shortages at Sutter Health and some University of California sites, as the state “thought those organizations had a lot of inventory” when they really didn’t, he said.
Blue Shield’s involvement should prevent repeat occurrences by giving the state “the ability to know where the vaccine is at all times,” he said.
California vaccination progress by the numbers
On Monday, exactly three months after providers injected the first vaccine doses in California, the state reported surpassing 12 million total doses administered.
CDPH on its online vaccine data tracker shows providers have administered 12,172,948 doses to date. The state says it has injected an average of about 194,000 doses per day over the past week.
The state says about 4.15 million people are fully vaccinated — about 10% of California’s total population and 13% of its adult population — and an additional 4.09 million are partially vaccinated.
This means about 20% of California’s total population and 26% of its adults are at least partially vaccinated.
CDPH says the state has administered 78% of the doses it has received from the federal government. Federal data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the median for this measure among the 50 states plus Washington, D.C., is about 81%.
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Sunday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 396,234 (25,270 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 57,337 (29,693 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 142,495 (35,585 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 70,661 (31,600 doses per 100,000)
Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.
Sacramento County has finally reached the milestone of administering one dose per every four residents, but continues to lag. The county’s per-capita vaccination rate is about 17% below California as a whole. Placer, by contrast, is 17% ahead of the statewide rate.
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 last week 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: 349,960 to Sacramento County residents through last Friday. Of those, 234,894 were first doses and 115,066 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 last week opened 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
▪ Received: 48,370 total doses.
▪ Administered: 47,618 doses as of March 5, 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.
Robinson’s Pharmacy on Main Street in Placerville is taking appointments through CalVax, the state’s online vaccine registration system.
The county offers 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.
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.
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: 15,798 first doses and 12,487 second doses through last Friday, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said Monday.
Yolo County’s vaccination website says the county is operating five clinics this week, all private, including for agriculture workers, education workers and jail inmates.
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 begun using the state’s My Turn website to schedule vaccination appointments.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 12:57 PM.
