State and local authorities are beginning to open mass vaccination centers to accelerate coronavirus immunizations and accommodate the millions of additional Californians now eligible for vaccines under the state’s new and more flexible guidelines.
Vaccination sites are opening this week at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and Cal Expo in Sacramento, Governor Gavin Newsom said at a news conference on Monday. Some sites are also being opened in the Bay Area, although for now they are for health professionals and only by appointment. But they are ready to be opened to the general public in the coming weeks.
The opening of mass vaccination clinics marks the next stage in a historic immunization campaign that began just a month ago, when the first vaccines were injected into the arms of high-risk health professionals.
Since then, California has administered less than a third of the doses it received from the federal government. This puts California close to the bottom of US states on vaccination rates and puts immense pressure on public health officials to accelerate the process.
“We recognize that the current strategy will not get us where we need to go as quickly as we all need to go,” said Newsom. “That is why we are speeding up administration not only for priority groups, but opening large sites for that.”
On Sunday, the most recent date for which data are available, about 783,000 of the 2.9 million doses that were sent to California counties and health care providers went into people’s arms, according to the state. This gives 1,981 doses per 100,000 people.
In comparison, South Dakota and West Virginia, which have the highest vaccination rates, administered 5,451 and 5,376 doses per 100,000 people, respectively, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
While many health professionals can be vaccinated through their employer or health care provider, county officials hope that opening additional sites will speed up the process. In addition, Bay Area counties predict that, within a few weeks, large-scale vaccination sites will begin to immunize people in the next group, Phase 1b, which in California includes about 15 million essential workers and people aged 65 and over. years or more.
The loosened state guidelines, announced on Thursday, allow counties and healthcare providers to start vaccinating people in Phase 1b now, as long as they have made vaccines available to everyone in Phase 1a. But many counties and providers in the Bay Area are still working on Phase 1a and do not expect to fully enter Phase 1b until late January or early February.
In California, Phase 1a includes approximately 2.4 million health professionals and residents of long-term care facilities. Phase 1b, which the state has not yet completed, will likely be divided into two layers. The first includes people working in education, emergency services and food and agriculture, as well as people aged 75 and over. The second level includes people who work in essential manufacturing and transportation, as well as people aged 65 and over and people who are homeless or incarcerated.
“In the next two weeks we will finish vaccinating the first groups of people and start vaccinating the next group,” said Dr. Ori Tzvieli, deputy health officer for Contra Costa County. “We are looking at people over 75 and essential workers, such as teachers, daycare centers, police and grocery stores. As more residents become more eligible for vaccines, healthcare providers let their members and patients know how to schedule vaccine appointments. ”
The county announced on Monday that a Safeway location will begin offering injections this week, and that additional Safeway and Rite Aid stores will be in touch within the next two weeks. Contra Costa County declined to specify the location of Safeway because it is currently vaccinating only Phase 1a health workers by appointment. The county is notifying people that they can be vaccinated there.
Most residents in the county will be vaccinated by their own doctor, not at a county vaccination clinic, said Tzvieli. Major health care providers, like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter, will notify their patients when they are eligible to schedule vaccination appointments, he said. Notifications must start before the end of the month.
San Mateo County on Monday opened a mass vaccination center in a location that had previously been used for coronavirus testing. The vaccination clinic at the San Mateo County Event Center is currently only for healthcare professionals, who must register for an online consultation and fill out a certificate form asking if they live in the county and work with patients in person, and advising them not to share or forward the link to others. Upon arrival, they must show a photo ID.
In San Francisco, where most residents have public or private health insurance, the public health department will help provide vaccines to the remaining vulnerable residents who are not covered. Public health officials said they would work with private providers like Kaiser to open larger vaccination sites.
Santa Clara County is also vaccinating health professionals who are not patients in major healthcare systems by appointment. She plans to open an additional website at El Camino Health, which is due to start scheduling appointments online on Tuesday and giving injections next week.
Catherine Ho is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Cat_Ho