Kaiser Permanente administered more coronavirus vaccines to residents of Sonoma County than any other single provider, according to new data released by the county this week that provide unprecedented details about the 2-month campaign to inoculate county residents in Sonoma County. lethal virus.
On Wednesday, 76,936 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were administered to residents of Sonoma County, the equivalent of one dose going to 15.4% of the total population. The county and its partners distributed the vaccine to a larger proportion of its residents than nine other California counties more similar in size, noted the county’s vaccine chief, Dr. Urmila Shende, on Wednesday night.
“So, in relation to many different counties in California, we are doing very, very well,” said Shende. “It’s a rough road, it doesn’t seem like it every day. But we are making progress and we are administering doses at a faster rate than other counties of our size. “
However, most border counties continue to overtake Sonoma County in vaccinating their populations. Napa (19.0%), Marin (18.2%) and Mendocino (17.1%) delivered more doses per capita. Lake County (12.3%) delivered less.
Overall, Sonoma County has the 12th highest vaccination rate among the state’s 58 counties, according to data compiled by the state’s Department of Public Health.
The data reveals new insights into the vaccination campaign, which started on December 14 with top health care professionals and emergency responders, and then expanded on January 27 to seniors over 75. This week, teachers working with young students were eligible, along with people aged 70 to 74.
Just over 1 in 10 residents who received the vaccine were vaccinated outside Sonoma County, mostly health professionals who travel to work in nearby counties.
As the vaccine distribution varies by provider
Kaiser, the largest health care provider in the county, has administered more vaccines than any other entity, with about 17,000 vaccines so far. Second was a group of companies that partnered to manage the sites launched in the county – including the Sonoma County Medical Association, DEMA Consulting and OptumServe, among others. Together, they administered just over 12,000 doses.
The next biggest vaccine administrators were Sutter Health (about 10,050 doses), providers outside the county (something close to 8,000), CVS Pharmacy (more than 5,000), Safeway (close to 4,000) and St. Joseph Health, which operates Santa Rosa Memorial and Petaluma Valley Hospitals (about 3,000).
Judging by the data, not everyone is examining their vaccine bottles in the same proportion.
Among the six hospitals in Sonoma County, Kaiser Santa Rosa administered about 95% of the doses received, Petaluma Valley Hospital 84% and Sonoma Valley Hospital 59%. Memorial Santa Rosa, the largest hospital in the municipality, administered only 55% of the doses it received. Sutter Santa Rosa did not provide a number for the doses received, and the Healdsburg District Hospital line showed more doses going into the arms (1,094) than to the facilities (980), more indications of the irregular nature of current vaccination data.
The Healdsburg hospital may have been able to extract extra doses from its vials, which is possible with the right type of needle, said Kate Pack, the county’s chief epidemiologist. Other discrepancies in the data may have resulted from confusion about what the county is asking health care professionals to list, she said.
St. Joseph Health, the parent company of Memorial Hospital, did not respond to a request for comment on the usage fee at its Santa Rosa hospital.
The difficulty for Sutter Health in tracking its distribution is that, as a multi-country entity, it often shares the doses available between its campuses based on daily demand, said Erin Neal, managing director of the provider in the bay area.
“The allocation comes from the state system,” explained Neal. “We received a certain amount for Sutter and, as we book appointments and vaccine clinics, it is allocated to us in Sonoma County. So, I apologize for not having a direct answer to that question. But we defend weekly as much as we can according to our population. “
It was not clear why Kaiser and St. Joseph were able to overcome similar challenges in reporting.
Who is getting vaccines first
In addition to graphics on provider distribution, the county also shared demographic and geographic data on vaccine disbursements.
Latino residents have received only 11% of the doses so far, although they represent 27.3% of the population. Meanwhile, about 61.5% of all doses were for women, compared with 38.5% for men. The figures reflect the initial emphasis on the vaccination effort, which focused on frontline health workers, said Pack.
The division of vaccines by residents’ postal codes showed a great disparity. The CEP with the highest percentage of vaccinated residents was 95,444 in Graton, with 26%. The lowest was 95412 in Annapolis, at around 4%.
The figures provided on Wednesday are more relevant as they relate to the descent of Sonoma County through the various phases and levels of the California vaccination priority system. Authorities said the county has already immunized about 45% of people aged 75 and over, a proportion they considered large enough to trigger a change in the 70-74 age group this week.
Individuals aged between 65 and 69 years old, who make up about 7% of the municipality’s population with around 34,000 inhabitants, are anxiously awaiting their turn. It will not come until many vaccine suppliers, large and small, make their way through the older subsets.
“I wish we could give you a specific date for 65 years or more, but it depends on our overall level of supply and how quickly we can continue to vaccinate,” said Shende.
You can contact editor Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or [email protected]. On Twitter @Skinny_Post.