COVID vaccine clinic in Del Paso Heights staying open, says Sacramento County supervisor
A COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Del Paso Heights that was in jeopardy of closing will stay open, maintaining a crucial avenue to fighting the coronavirus in one of Sacramento’s most underserved neighborhoods.
Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna, who represents the Del Paso Heights section of Sacramento and other northwest parts of the county, said in a social media post the site at Grant Union High School would stay open under a new operation plan.
“(It) will continue to operate due to a reconfigured partnership with Sacramento County Public Health and WellSpace Health,” Serna said in a Facebook post Friday afternoon. “I want to publicly thank Sacramento County’s Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye and Dr. Jonathan Porteus with WellSpace Health for working with vaccine site organizers to develop a solution. A sincere and hardy thank you.”
As The Sacramento Bee reported on Friday morning, the volunteer-led site that had been open since Feb. 4 was set up in an area with one of the county’s highest infection rates. The site was giving priority to Black, brown and Asian residents and was a model for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s new plan to designate 40% of vaccines to California’s most vulnerable neighborhoods.
“It is a race against the variants. It’s a race against exhaustion. It’s a race to safely, thoughtfully open our economy, mindful that it has to be an economy that doesn’t leave people behind, that is truly inclusive,” Newsom, a Democrat, said during a news conference Thursday.
It’s unclear if there will be any delay to the clinic’s usual Thursday and Saturday operation.
The closure was threatened, according to one volunteer, after doses of the Pfizer vaccine were not properly reported. Volunteers at the clinic said doses had been reported back to the providers, but Dr. Olivia Kasirye, Sacramento County’s public health officer, said earlier Friday that she had concerns about the clinic’s vaccine documentation, storage and available medical personnel.
According to Dr. Kawanaa Carter, a neurosurgeon and board member at Jesuit High School who had pushed for the site, the Del Paso vaccination clinic had already administered 2,500 vaccinations. It had received more than 3,000 requests for vaccinations, many from people in underserved communities. It had been vaccinating teachers from the Twin Rivers School District.
According to the latest statewide COVID-19 numbers, Latinos make up 55.3% of positive cases and 46.3% of the deaths. Asians account for 11.6% of deaths; Blacks, 6.2%.
