‘Get going quickly’: Will child COVID vaccines help Sacramento ward off winter surge?
After coronavirus activity plateaued for most of October, Sacramento County health officials hope the rollout of vaccines to younger children can help put the region back on a declining trajectory — which may allow for some looser local restrictions.
Federal and state health officials this week cleared Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children ages 5 to 11.
“We hope people will get going quickly. That’s the best way to stave off a winter surge,” county vaccine program coordinator Rachel Allen said on a Thursday call with reporters.
County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said vaccinating young children should “help us to get past the plateau we are at,” and Allen said it is a necessary step toward potentially achieving herd immunity for the community.
In late September, Kasirye announced that Sacramento will likely drop its mask mandate for indoor public settings once the county’s case rate falls to about five per 100,000 residents, which she notes as roughly the level recorded shortly before California dropped most pandemic restrictions in mid-June. Kasirye said Thursday that five per 100,000 remains the goal.
After the delta variant produced a summer surge, Sacramento’s case rate steadily dropped from a peak of 46 per 100,000 in mid-August to 15 per 100,000 in early October, according to the county’s data dashboard. From Oct. 7 through Halloween, it has fluctuated between about 15 and 18 per 100,000.
Juveniles made up 23% of all confirmed infections over the past month, compared to 14% for the entire pandemic, according to a presentation Kasirye gave Tuesday to the county Board of Supervisors.
During the presentation, Kasirye attributed the recent spike and plateau in case rate to two factors: cases among juveniles, plus a recent, ongoing outbreak at the county’s two jail facilities.
More on Sacramento jail outbreaks
The “main concern” of late has been the COVID-19 outbreak at the Sacramento County Main Jail downtown and Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center, where close to 200 have tested positive since Oct. 18, Kasirye said. One inmate has died, and another was hospitalized.
Kasirye said the best way to prevent future outbreaks is to improve inmate vaccination rates. County officials have said all but one of the 193 recent positive cases have not been fully vaccinated.
The jails have recently had a “point-in-time” vaccination rate of around 30%, Kaisyre said, with the exact percentage varying as inmates are admitted and released.
“I wish it could be higher, and we’re definitely working with correctional health and the Sheriff’s Office” to boost vaccine uptake, the health officer said. “We are in discussion to see if there are any other measures that can be taken.”
‘Should be no shortage’ of pediatric COVID vaccine
The county hopes for a smoother rollout for children 5 to 11 than for the general adult population earlier this year.
“This time around, we have a lot more vaccine available. There should be no shortage,” Kasirye said. “We are working very closely with pediatricians.”
Local doctor’s offices, health care systems, pharmacies and school districts are also working to establish appointments and clinics.
“For those who are making this decision, we would just encourage parents to be assured that this vaccine is safe and effective,” said Allen, the county vaccine coordinator.
Allen stressed that pediatric COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized following clinical testing involving tens of thousands of children, and that millions of adolescents nationwide have also been vaccinated.
About 54% of the county’s 12-to-17 population is fully vaccinated for COVID-19, according to California Department of Public Health data, compared to 70% of all eligible county residents.
Though the percentage of children infected with the virus who die from it is very small, Allen also noted that COVID-19 has become one of the nation’s top 10 leading causes of death in young children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that for children 5 to 11, it ranked No. 8 between October 2020 and October 2021, just below suicide and influence/pneumonia.
Vaccinating for the holidays
The worst surge of the pandemic to date came last winter. A major surge this winter is not a foregone conclusion, according to Kasirye, especially now that vaccines are widely available.
But risk does increase this time of year, as several major holidays are clustered together, and as people begin to gather indoors more frequently amid colder, wetter weather.
Allen said to keep in mind that it takes five weeks from the first dose to be fully vaccinated with Pfizer — three weeks between the two doses, and then two additional weeks for the immunization to take full effect.
That adds some urgency for anyone looking to vaccinate their children in time for the winter holidays. One would need to get their first dose by Nov. 19 to be fully vaccinated by Christmas Eve, for instance; and by Black Friday to be inoculated by New Year’s Eve.
