COVID vaccine updates: Where California, the Sacramento area stand as major expansion nears
The U.S. campaign to mass vaccinate against COVID-19 has become a literal race against the virus and its concerning genetic variants, as several regions across the country have begun to see steep surges even as their inoculation rates ramp up.
For now in California, the tide has not turned in terms of infections. But April still figures to be a pivotal month in the vaccine rollout, with urgency increasing as more highly infectious variants such as B.1.1.7 show signs of greater spread across the U.S.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that the state would expand vaccine eligibility to all adults 50 and older starting this coming Thursday, and to all Californians 16 and older starting April 15.
In practice, how long it will take for vaccine appointments to be readily available to all in those age groups who want one will depend on federal and state supply levels increasing in the coming weeks.
The current expectation is that the stock of doses will increase substantially over the course of April, due largely to major increases in shipments of the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. Local health officials in the Sacramento area say they expect a bottleneck, at least at the outset as millions more residents become eligible.
The California Department of Public Health reports providers statewide have administered 17,356,911 doses to date, with the state averaging about 307,000 doses injected a day over the past week. Providers have administered 82% of the 21.1 million doses delivered, state health officials say.
CDPH says more than 6.27 million are now fully vaccinated in California, with an additional 5.33 million partially vaccinated. That means approximately 16% of California’s total population, and 20% of its adults, are fully vaccinated; and 29% of Californians including 37% of adults have had at least one dose.
California is set to receive more than 2.1 million total doses this week from all three manufacturers — J&J, Pfizer and Moderna — with the expectation that the state could be hitting 3 million doses a week by May or early June, Newsom suggested in a news conference last week.
Equity gap decreasing, tier loosening threshold nearing
State health officials earlier in the month put an emphasis on administering more doses in the lowest quartile of California’s Healthy Places Index, which measures quality and availability of health care in ZIP codes based on a number of factors including poverty rates.
The state announced a doubling of allocations to this lowest quartile, which as of early March had received about 17% of California’s total administered doses compared to 34% for the top quartile.
Less than a month later, that gap has trimmed from 17 percentage points down to 10.3. CDPH on Monday reported the bottom quartile has received 20% of doses compared to 30.3% for the top quartile.
Additionally, CDPH plans to loosen the case rate requirement for counties to enter the looser orange and yellow tiers of economic reopening once the bottom HPI quartile reaches the milestone of 4 million doses injected. That tally stood at close to 3.4 million as of Monday’s update, and is currently on pace to hit 4 million in about a week or so.
How many are fully, partially vaccinated in 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: 607,855 (38,767 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 82,173 (42,555 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 194,293 (48,521 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 106,043 (47,423 doses per 100,000)
Here is what percentage of each county’s population is fully and partially vaccinated, according to CDPH data.
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 as part of a federal retail pharmacy partnership. More details are available via those companies’ websites.
Sacramento
Sacramento County’s Cal Expo site is being transitioned to a new administrator called Curative in April, 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.
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.
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 last week announced dates for the South Lake Tahoe clinic: it will give shots every Monday, Thursday and Friday now through the end of April, with the exception of Monday, April 19. Appointments are available through CalVax, at calvax.org.
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. It will run each Thursday through at least April 22.
The Red Hawk clinic gives Pfizer shots. The South Lake Tahoe clinic uses Moderna.
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.
The Grounds clinic will be closed Thursday and Friday due to a SacAnime swap meet at the venue.
Clinics this Monday through Wednesday will have longer hours and more appointment slots to compensate, a county spokesperson said. About 90% of appointments scheduled for this week at The Grounds are second-dose appointments, spokeswoman Katie Combs-Prichard said.
Appointment links for qualifying residents are posted as they become 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 can also be made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
Yolo
Yolo County’s vaccination website shows eight private county-run clinics this week as well as two public clinics, one each of Friday and Saturday. The county says sign-up information for the public clinics will be posted online soon.
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 says it has resumed 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 from early February to early March, and is booking appointments “as supply allows.”
Sutter says on its patient website it has administered more than 450,000 doses to date.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients in all groups eligible in phases 1A and 1B. Kaiser Permanente says on its website it is offering vaccines to Kaiser members as well as non-members.
In an update last week, Kaiser Permanente said it had administered nearly 1.05 million of the 1.13 million doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 433,000 future appointments scheduled.
UC Davis Health is vaccinating patients in all eligible groups as defined by CDPH.
UC Davis Health is using the state’s My Turn website to schedule vaccination appointments.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has also begun using My Turn to schedule appointments, and is working with the state and other partners to offer vaccines to eligible Californians.
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 11:50 AM.
