| Ventura County Star
US plans to expand search for coronavirus variants
As COVID-19 mutates in potentially more dangerous forms, the United States is stepping up efforts to detect the new variants. Stanford Medicine has launched an important surveillance program to track coronavirus variants in the San Francisco Bay area. (February 4th)
AP
Editor’s note: Star is making this story free for readers due to public health concerns related to the coronavirus. Consider a digital signature from The Star so that we can continue doing this important job.
More than 80,000 residents of Ventura County between the ages of 65 and 74 can now receive COVID vaccines, but the limited supply of vaccines means it can take months to protect them all, officials announced on Tuesday.
And while some counties opened the vaccination door for all seniors in January, Ventura County officials limited vaccines to a high-risk group that includes health professionals and people aged 75 and over.
That changed on Tuesday with vaccination now expanded to all seniors.
Barry Zimmerman, leader of the Ventura County vaccination task force, said at a meeting of the Board of Supervisors that the county administered the first of two doses to 53% of seniors in the area aged 75 and over.
“This is an excellent, excellent penetration,” he said, noting that the progress helped trigger the decision to expand eligibility for younger seniors.
County officials said earlier that the next group in the vaccination queue would be people aged 65 to 74 who have health problems that make them more vulnerable to serious COVID illnesses.
Instead, they opened the door for everyone in the age group.
In an e-mail after the meeting, Zimmerman said the county decided it would be difficult to “manage the qualifying factors” when trying to limit vaccinations to people with certain health conditions. He also noted that the entire age group in general is considered to be at greatest risk.
The clinical systems that are providing vaccines at their sites are being asked to give vaccines first to the elderly who are most at risk, said Zimmerman.
Delivery issues
The pipeline problems in delivering the vaccine from the state to the county continue and will likely cause people to have to wait for vaccination appointments.
“We only got 10,000, maybe 12,000 in a good week,” said Zimmerman of the doses administered. Officials said orders for more vaccines are constantly made to the state.
At the current rate of delivery, it may take 22 weeks to administer two doses to everyone currently eligible for vaccines, said Zimmerman.
“We will still have a lot of people that we cannot care for until we get more vaccine,” said supervisor Kelly Long.
Zimmerman also said that the county is expected to move to the next level of essential frontline workers, including teachers, rural workers, police and grocery workers by the end of March.
More: Experimental COVID-19 treatment with the aim of keeping Ventura County residents out of hospitals
A small pilot program involving vaccinating workers at two farms in the Santa Clara Valley could begin later this week.
A next push
Vaccine supply may increase. Ventura County Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin noted that Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, promised a 16% increase in federal government vaccination supplies.
A third vaccine supplier, Johnson & Johnson, has applied for vaccine approval and a fourth product, from AstraZeneca, may also appear.
People can sign up for appointments at https://www.venturacountyrecovers.org/vaccine-information/portal/. People without internet access can call 805-477-7161.
Appointments depend directly on the vaccine supply. Zimmerman said on Tuesday that there are no more appointments for the first dose this week.
More slots covering the next week are expected to be added to the system on Wednesday.
The county is also scheduled to transition to the state’s My Turn nominations portal on February 22. At that point, people will be able to make the nominations until the end of March, said Zimmerman.
The county also continues to add more vaccination sites by appointment only. A site may open later this week at 2340 N. Rose Ave. in Oxnard. Another location is expected later this month on 5100 Adolfo Road in Camarillo.
Other locations are planned for Santa Paula, Camarillo, Oxnard and Simi Valley. Private clinic systems, including the Clinicas del Camino Real and the Community Family Memory Centers, will also partner with the county to offer vaccines.
Vaccines are also being offered by pharmacies that are partnering with the county.
More: Conejo Valley Unified, teacher union negotiates COVID-19 related stipends for teachers
Second wave of doses
The county is also vaccinating a wave of people who received their first doses in January and are now expected to receive the second. The largest vaccination site in the area, Ventura County Fairgrounds, is temporarily being used exclusively for second doses.
Zimmerman said that as of Monday, almost 99,000 doses of the vaccine had been administered in the county. He said he was informed that the county has the 12th highest volume of vaccines administered in California.
Levin told supervisors that vaccines are considered effective against the UK virus variant, which is being found at an increasing rate across the state and country.
It is feared that the variant may become the dominant strain in some regions, said Levin, adding that it could be 30% more contagious than the Wuhan strain.
Last month, very small samples of two COVID-19 mutations were found in an Oxnard sewer study looking for evidence of the virus in human waste.
Both mutations are among the many found in the UK strain. Levin said the county is still waiting for the lab’s results to determine whether the mutations discovered are in fact the strain that emerged in England.
“The variants will inevitably come to Ventura County, but the vaccines we have appear to be protective,” he said.
Levin said samples taken a week ago at the Oxnard sewer project also showed less evidence of one of the two mutations and no new evidence for the second.
The mutations are unlikely to have disappeared permanently, but the diminished presence is good news, said Levin.
“It gives us a few weeks or maybe months and maybe by then we have already distributed enough vaccine to make it debatable (period),” said Levin.
More: COVID-19 vaccinations launched for veterinarians at Oxnard Veterans Affairs clinic
County improvement
Ventura County Public Health Director Rigoberto Vargas told the Board of Supervisors that county COVID metrics continue to improve. On Monday, 263 people with COVID needed hospital care – below the peak of 449 in January.
The rate of positivity and the number of cases are also falling, Vargas said.
State data released showed that the county’s unadjusted COVID case rate dropped from an average of 80 cases per day per 100,000 inhabitants to 62 cases per day in the week ending January 30.
That rate was still the highest in California.
The county’s COVID testing rate – an average of 800 tests per day per 100,000 people – is among the best in the state. Officials say the high level of testing is a partial explanation for the high rate of cases.
Vargas reported on Tuesday another five deaths linked to the virus, bringing the total in the municipality to 683.
Witness of ‘horrible reality’
Supervisor Carmen Ramirez announced at the board meeting that her brother, Ricardo Ramirez, died of the virus. He was a retired 64-year-old electrician and an Army veteran who lived on his boat in the Channel Islands port.
He was “generous, kind, loving and concerned about his family and our world,” she said by email.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting, she said the death devastated her family.
“For those who think this is not real, I am a witness to the horrible reality of it,” she said, elaborating on the point in an email. “I just want to wake up in the morning and think it was a nightmare. And he’s still going to come through my door to get his mail.”
Tom Kisken covers health care and other news for the Ventura County Star. Contact him at tom.kisken@vcstar.com or 805-437-0255.
SUPPORT LOCAL JOURNALISM: To see more stories like this, subscribe here.