Vaccine updates: California reaches 15 million shots; equity gap narrowing, state says
In another milestone in the rollout, California health officials say the state has now injected more than 15 million vaccine doses to fight COVID-19.
The California Department of Public Health reported Tuesday that about 5.37 million Californians are now fully vaccinated and 4.84 million have one of the required two inoculations.
Those figures mean about 25% of all California residents, and 33% of all adults statewide, are at least partially vaccinated; and about 13% of all Californians, and 17% of adults, are fully vaccinated.
In all, 15,152,845 doses have been injected, an increase by 330,090 from Monday’s total, according to CDPH.
Providers have administered 79% of the 19.3 million doses shipped to California.
Equity gap narrowing
CDPH on Tuesday reported residents in the bottom quartile of the state’s “Healthy Places Index,” which measures availability and quality of health care access based on a number of factors including poverty, have received 19.5% of all doses injected in California. The top quartile has received 30.4%.
The state put an emphasis on reducing inequity earlier this month, announcing that the bottom quartile would get 40% of statewide supply.
The equity gap is still significant at 10.9 percentage points between the top and bottom quartiles, but it has narrowed since the supply reconfiguration. Three weeks ago, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the low quartile had received 17% of doses while the top had gotten 34%, for a 17-point gap.
CDPH also announced in early March that the state would loosen the thresholds for its reopening tiers once the bottom quartile hit 2 million doses, then loosen them again when it reaches 4 million. That group hit 2 million on March 12. As of Tuesday, it was at about 2.9 million.
Vaccine tiers to be removed in a few weeks, Newsom says
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that California plans to open vaccine eligibility to all residents ages 16 and older in early May.
President Joe Biden earlier this month directed states to make all adults eligible for vaccination no later than May 1.
Scarce supply has kept rollout of the vaccine in phases so far, but the groups currently eligible in California — those 65 and older, essential workers in several sectors plus those ages 16 through 64 with certain health conditions — now include roughly half of the state’s 31 million adults.
Supply is also expected to ramp up substantially in April, due in large party to increased shipments of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention releases its weekly allocation data for states each Tuesday. Those numbers hadn’t been posted as of midday.
How many are fully, partially vaccinated in Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Monday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
Sacramento: 537,674 (34,291 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 72,747 (37,674 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 175,764 (43,893 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 93,191 (41,675 doses per 100,000)
Here is what percentage of each county’s population is fully and partially vaccinated, according to CDPH data.
▪ Sacramento: 11.9% fully vaccinated, 22.9% at least partially vaccinated
▪ El Dorado: 13.7% fully vaccinated, 24.7% at least partially vaccinated
▪ Placer: 16.4% fully vaccinated, 28% at least partially vaccinated
▪ Yolo: 14.2% fully vaccinated, 28.1% at least partially vaccinated
Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.
Northern California VA locations giving vaccines
Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care is now offering COVID-19 vaccination to veterans at 11 clinic locations: Auburn, Chico, Fairfield, Mare Island, Martinez, Mather, McClellan, Oakland, Redding, Yreka and Yuba City.
Enrolled veterans are eligible regardless of age.
Veterans can book appointments online using the My HealtheVet portal; or by calling 800-382-8387 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.
More details are available at northerncalifornia.va.gov.
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 last week that it was expanding eligibility and prioritizing scheduling for teachers, school staff and child care workers in California. The pharmacy chain on Thursday announced that it was extended this expanded priority for teachers through the rest of March.
CVS said earlier this month it would be offering shots at 119 more of its pharmacies. 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
Sacramento County has expanded eligibility to farm workers, restaurant employees and janitors as it advances within Phase 1B of the rollout.
It is also making a major push to vaccinate homeless who live under local freeways.
The county has opened a drive-thru clinic at Bayside Church in midtown on 19th Street, operated by Safeway. That clinic is offering the J&J single-dose vaccine this Wednesday and Thursday, by appointment only.
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.
The Cal Expo site is being transitioned to a new administrator, so first-dose appointment bookings have been paused there while second doses continue. Doses that would normally have been given there are being transferred to other clinics.
All clinics require appointments in advance. Scheduling and booking information can be found at dhs.saccounty.net.
Sacramento also has CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores participating in the federal partnership program, and 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. Cal Expo and Safeway pharmacies offer Moderna, a four-week wait.
El Dorado
El Dorado runs clinics for eligible groups at its public health offices in Placerville and South Lake Tahoe.
The county also 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. That clinic is now offering first-dose as well as second-dose appointments.
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.
More detailed information on county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville. As of midday Tuesday, the Placer County website says all clinics for the week are fully booked.
Appointment links are posted as they become available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
The Grounds clinic is open for Placer County residents ages 65 and older, ages 16 through 64 with qualifying medical conditions and essential workers in Phase 1A or 1B who are employed in Placer County.
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
Yolo County’s vaccination website county-run clinics this week are reserved for agriculture and education workers. “All, if not most” of this week’s 4,000 allocated doses are going toward second-dose clinics, the county says on its website.
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.
Sutter Health announced last week that it is resuming the booking of first-dose appointments in the valley area — its large clinics in Sacramento, Roseville, Modesto, Stockton and Tracy — after it had suspended new appointments for about a month, and is booking appointments “as supply allows.”
Sutter says on its patient website it has administered more than 425,000 doses to date.
UC Davis Health is 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, and will offer shots to those with high-risk medical conditions as supply allows.
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 last week, Kaiser Permanente said it had administered nearly 950,000 of the 1.2 million doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 380,000 future appointments scheduled.
Kaiser Permanente says on its website it is offering vaccines to Kaiser members as well as non-members.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has begun using the state’s My Turn website to schedule vaccination appointments.
