As Bay Area residents over 65 face delays, long waits and even cancellations of COVID-19 vaccination appointments, Santa Clara County officials have moved to expand access to the vaccine in public and private hospital systems to streamline implementation.
As of Thursday, anyone in the age group who lives or works in the county can schedule a vaccination appointment with any provider, regardless of their primary health insurance or provider, said health officer Dr. Sara Cody in an interview collective.
“Anyone aged 65 and over – no matter where you get medical care – can register and get care,” said Cody. “A Kaiser patient can come to the county. A Stanford patient can go to Kaiser. A county patient can go to Stanford. It doesn’t matter – if you are 65 or older, we want you to be vaccinated. “
The new policy aims to create a “no wrong door” system in which people can more easily navigate a hodgepodge of public and private vaccination sites, and comes just a day after a group of Bay Area health officials recommended that everyone health systems prioritize those 65 and older.
Earlier this week, Kaiser Permanente said it had to cancel 750 vaccine appointments for South Bay residents aged 75 and over, and about 4,500 appointments originally scheduled for January 29 to February 5 for those aged 65 and over. 74 years after it faced an unexpected shortage of vaccine supplies.
As the county had already asked people to find vaccines through their own provider – and with about half of the county’s nearly 2 million residents relying on Kaiser or Sutter Health – this shortage has left qualified residents in trouble, the supervisor said. District 5, Joe Simitian. .
“If we say that we are all in this together, we have to be sincere. We have to provide access to the vaccine, and that access cannot depend on who your doctor is or the number of vaccines he received in a given week, ”said Simitian. “We have to give each resident of Santa Clara County access to the vaccine, according to federal, state and local criteria, and we have to do it faster.”
The vaccine’s launch has been mired in confusion for weeks. Last month, dozens of Phase 1B employees in Santa Clara County were vaccinated with extra doses, including some employees who are much younger than state guidelines dictate. Elsewhere, people got doses through well-informed family or friends, sharing links to enrollments or health tests.
Santa Clara officials, however, said they were pushing to vaccinate needy populations and people of color, opening unannounced vaccination sites in East San Jose and Gilroy, which recorded high rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality for months. Authorities have not yet been able to provide details of vaccine launches by race and ethnicity on Thursday morning.
Editors Robert Salonga and Emily DeRuy contributed to this report.