Fewer shipments to Sacramento County to slow COVID vaccine effort as eligibility grows

As more Californians get ready to roll up a sleeve for their coronavirus vaccine, Sacramento County’s shortage of doses continues — with a dramatic drop in supply expected next week.

All Sacramento County residents over the age of 16 will soon be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, but county health officials have warned that residents will need to be patient, given the low supply of doses.

With the new wave of eligibility, Pfizer vaccines could be in even higher demand with limited supply, given the vaccine is the only one approved for 16- and 17-year-olds. Concern over limited supply is also increased due to difficulties in getting enough doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following a failed quality check for a batch of the vaccine.

“We already knew we were gonna have enough doses for everyone in that population, and now it will be a bit more challenging,” Sacramento County’s Immunization Program Manager Rachel Allen said.

The county received 11,700 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 6,800 doses of the Moderna vaccine and 1,700 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this week. The county will be receiving 4,680 more doses of Pfizer and 400 more doses of Moderna, but nearly 10,400 fewer doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The total allotment of 20,000 doses is a drop from 25,520 doses in the week prior.

While vaccinations in the next few days will be unaffected by the drop in supply, those hoping to get a vaccine in the following week may have trouble getting an appointment just eligibility expands. Allen expressed hope that more doses will be allotted to the county by mid-April

“We’re just asking for patience, and we will make sure to get doses out as quickly as we can,” Allen said.

Sacramento County staying in the red tier

Sacramento County, which remains in the red tier, has experienced a slight increase in cases. On its own health dashboard, Sacramento’s seven-day case rate was reported at 7.2 per 100,000 for the week ending March 20, but rose to 8.3 per 100,000 five days later and remained at 8.2 per 100,000 as of Tuesday.

As of Thursday, the average seven-day case rate for Sacramento County was 8.6 cases per 100,000 people. County officials expressed hope that the case rate would remain steady or decrease, rather than continue its slight climb.

“We’re going to be optimistic and say it will hold steady,” said Jamie White, Sacramento County Public Health’s epidemiology program manager.

Despite continuing efforts to vaccinate residents, the county faces a challenge in lowering the caseload before they will be eligible to advance to the orange tier.

County health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye during a weekly news briefing March 25 said “probably sometime late April” would be her best guess for when the county could move to orange, though she said a variety of factors could change that timeline. It remains too early to tell whether that increases in cases present a small setback or the start of a longer-term spike in cases, but in either case it is very difficult to forecast when the rate might fall below six.

Concern over spread of variants of COVID-19 continues to plague county health officials. As of Thursday, 11 cases of either the B.1.351 or the B.1.1.7 variant have been recorded in Sacramento County.

How many are fully, partially vaccinated in Sacramento area?

These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Thursday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.

▪ Sacramento: 757,097 (48,782 doses per 100,000 residents)

▪ El Dorado: 100,526 (52,128 doses per 100,000)

▪ Placer: 229,635 (57,649 doses per 100,000)

▪ Yolo: 132,554 (60,115 doses per 100,000)

Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.