Santa Clara County is stepping up vaccines in an attempt to finish providing them to healthcare professionals before moving on to the next group.
So far, launch has been slow across the bay area and across the country, but the next phase is expected to be much faster.
Kevin Dizon is now among more than 47,000 health professionals in Santa Clara County to obtain his COVID-19 vaccination appointment card, along with his first injection of the vaccine.
“Actually, I didn’t think I would be able to get it, I thought it would be at a later level and then they added the dental field,” said Dizon.
The state has extended Phase 1A eligibility to include all types of healthcare professionals, such as Dizon, who is a dental hygienist.
But so far, only about a third of the country’s health workers have received their vaccines.
Vaccinations will not expand to the next group until this group is completed, which should happen in a few weeks.
Health organizations across the bay area are already sending messages to members, including a mass email from Sutter Health.
According to the message, group 1B, which includes patients aged 65 to 74 and teachers, will soon be able to schedule vaccine appointments online.
Santa Clara County Public Health plans to open a second vaccination center, which could expand capacity to 6,000 vaccines per day.
Adding to this capacity are private groups like Walgreens and CVS.
“We are talking about more, like, for example, private hospitals like the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Kaiser, they are administering their vaccines too, separately,” said Santa Clara County supervisor Otto Lee.
But this expanded capacity depends on the availability of vaccines.
“Vaccines come in waves,” said Dr. Jennifer Tong of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. “We receive a volume of 50 to 100,000 at a time, and one of our main factors for expanding capacity further is whether or not we will have enough vaccine.”