Amid the closure of the state’s largest Covid-19 vaccination site due to a sharp drop in supply, California state health officials announced on Friday that the state would soon allow another 4 to 6 million residents to qualified for vaccination. Currently, 13 million people in the state are eligible for vaccination.
By a “provider’s newsletter” sent by the state to medical professionals on Friday:
Longer term
“As of March 15, healthcare professionals can use their clinical judgment to vaccinate individuals aged 16 to 64 who are considered to be at greatest risk for COVID-19 morbidity and mortality as a direct result of one or more of the following serious problems health conditions. “
These conditions include:
– Cancer, current with a weakened or immunocompromised state. Chronic kidney disease, stage 4 or higher
– Chronic lung disease, oxygen dependent
-Down’s syndrome
– Immunocompromised state (weakened immune system) due to solid organ transplantation
-Pregnancy
-Sickle cell anemia
– Heart disease, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies (excludes hypertension)
– Severe obesity (Body Mass Index ≥ 40 kg / m2)
– Type 2 diabetes mellitus with hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5%
Or…
– If the individual is likely to develop serious life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection
– The acquisition of COVID-19 will limit an individual’s ability to receive continuous care or services vital to their well-being and survival
– Providing adequate and timely COVID care will be particularly challenging as a result of the individual’s disability
See the provider’s newsletter here.
The announcement comes on the same day that operations at Dodger Stadium – the state’s largest vaccination site – were closed for lack of vaccine. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that the site ran out of vaccine because the city’s allocation fell more than 80% week after week.
“This week we received just 16,000 new doses. It is the number of new doses that we distribute every day, ”he said. “This is 90,000 below the previous week. This is unacceptable. “
Meanwhile, according to The Fresno Bee, Fresno County’s allocation was doubled to 19,000 doses this week. Last week, the county received 8,000.
When Governor Gavin Newsom was asked this week about whether Fresno’s new operation would cannibalize the vaccine from other locations in the area, he replied, “Everything is dynamic. It depends on what the state of California gets. Again, the state has no vaccine doses. The federal government distributes these vaccines through its networks ”.
It is an answer that the governor gave repeatedly, insisting that the state is not the intermediary and that the distribution happens directly from the federal government to the suppliers, as with the seasonal flu vaccine. But what Garcetti was pointing out is that pressure from the state to rapidly expand vaccination sites is drying up a supply of vaccines that is already in short supply. Currently, all Californians over 65 are eligible.
Asked more specifically whether the increased prevalence of vaccination sites may have contributed to the drop in supply, Garcetti noted: “It’s a bit of a Hunger Games out there. We are doing a kind of ‘approach to everything above’. I think part of that is that we went to so many places without the corresponding supply, that you saw some of the main places … like ours and the county’s mega sites don’t have that much supply. “
When asked on Friday about concerns about supply versus demand for vaccines, government officials said the hope is that supplies will increase when the eligibility pool and distribution network also increase. It is not out of the question, as President Joe Biden this week announced a deal for an additional 200 million doses of the vaccine.
The state is hiring a third party to help centralize vaccine distribution. Although this deal has not yet been revealed, Newsom has promised that it will be launched soon. On Friday, state director of health and human services, Dr. Mark Ghaly, said officials would announce the “next phase of age” when that third partner enters.
As for when all Californians will be eligible for vaccination, a spring or early summer deadline has been fluctuated, but given the unknowns about the vaccine supply, government officials say the timing for such eligibility is “really uncertain now” .
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