At the beginning of the implementation of vaccination against coronavirus, California was behind most of the United States. But, starting this week, the state was recovered.
California as a whole administered about 19,933 vaccines per 100,000 people as of Thursday, close to the overall US rate of 20,250 doses per 100,000, according to state and CDC coronavirus trackers and population estimates from the US census. 2019 USA. California ranked 21st in a percentage of people who received at least one dose per state, according to The Chronicle’s Vaccine Tracker.
And in the Bay Area, eight of the region’s nine counties have administered a higher proportion of vaccines than the state and national average. San Francisco was among them, with a rate of 22,857 doses per 100,000.
The Bay Area county with the lowest rate of doses administered to date, Solano, was still close to the state and national average, with 19,350 shots per 100,000 residents. Bela Matyas, Solano County health officer, said the region had taken a multifocal approach to vaccinating its residents, including the operation of mass vaccination sites over the weekend and emerging clinics targeting underserved communities.
Like other California counties, Matyas said, Solano has struggled with supply problems and messy messages at the state level. But Solano also has two distinct problems.
First, Matyas said, nearly three-quarters of its population of around 450,000 are insured by Kaiser, which has been striving to provide vaccines to the elderly quickly. And, second, Solano County has a large population of retired military personnel – about 10,000 to 15,000, said Matyas – who depend on health care from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
According to Matyas, the state did not count this group in the destination of vaccines to the municipality. Instead, the federal government is allocating these doses to retirees separately from the state program, which has caused a delay in supply.
“The federal government is doing its best to help states, [and] giving more to the states than the (Department of Defense), ”said Matyas. “The problem is that DoD is deceived.”
The Bay Area county with the highest vaccination rate is close to Napa, which has administered nearly 1 dose for every 3 residents – about 29,300 doses for 100,000 people.
County supervisor Alfredo Pedroza credits Napa’s success to the initial investment in vaccine infrastructure.
“When the state was launching the (vaccine) framework, we were not expecting the state to tell us what the parameters would be,” he said. “We were creating partnerships with local suppliers.”
These partners, said Pedroza, include St. Helena hospital and OLE Health, which have demonstrated the ability to obtain doses in weapons quickly and efficiently.
Napa County has a major problem, which is the delay in vaccinations of its Latin population. Although the county is almost 35% Hispanic / Latino, only 12% of doses have been for Latino residents so far.
Pedroza said the county is working to close this gap, mainly by sending health professionals to vineyards and other agricultural areas that serve a disproportionate number of Latin workers.
“What has been successful has been working with employers, holding an information session with their workforce about the vaccine to answer their questions,” said Pedroza.
OLE Health also called members of the Latin community directly and encouraged them to get vaccinated, according to Pedroza.
“Primary care and direct outreach will lead to more success in our Latin community,” he said.
Susie Neilson is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @susieneilson