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For the many residents of Humboldt who are still waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine, you have probably heard that vaccines are only available to people aged 65 and over, or those who have jobs or health conditions that qualify them. But the Advanced post I was surprised to learn today that the Open Door Community Health Centers have already started vaccinating patients aged 55 and over.
Contacted by phone this afternoon, Arielle Manoli – manager of the Open Doors Community Health Centers office – confirmed that clinics have made COVID-19 vaccines available to patients 55 and older starting on Wednesday.
If you are an Open Door patient, you may have heard this news already – notifications were sent through MyChart on Wednesday, said Manoli, and the team is currently in the process of contacting eligible patients over the phone.
So, how is this expansion of the vaccine possible? The answer is quite simple. Currently, Open Door has more vaccines available than patients over 65 who have not yet been vaccinated. Manoli said that as more vaccines become available at pharmacies or mass vaccination clinics, the Open Door team was discovering that many of their patients had already been vaccinated elsewhere.
“As we moved up to level 65 and above, we were having a hard time filling vacancies,” said Manoli. “We communicate [to Public Health] that we had enough supply and availability to offer to another population and their recommendation was to decrease it to 55 and up. ”
Manoli said it will probably take some time for the Open Door to contact all eligible patients, so if you are seeing this and are over 55, you should call your home clinic to make an appointment. Open Door is currently administering vaccines in three of its locations: the NorthCountry Clinic in Arcata, the Telehealth and Visiting Specialist Center in Eureka and the Fortuna Community Health Center.
With the state recently announcing an increase in the supply of vaccines and plans to distribute them to more than 50 individuals as of April 1 and to all over the age of 16 shortly thereafter, many people are hopeful that they will not have to wait much more time. But, said Manoli, this does not necessarily mean that Humboldt County will see this expansion immediately, depending on how quickly Public Health receives the vaccine.
“It is a balancing act between what the CDC is allowing and the amount of vaccines that are arriving in the county,” she said.
And if you are an Open Door patient who is not in one of the eligible groups, you don’t just have to sit and wait for the vaccine. Manoli encourages you to call and be put on the waiting list. If the Open Door has extra doses, the team will contact the people on that list, so that the doses are not wasted.
Do you feel that the information you saw about vaccines is a little inconsistent? Well, Manoli says that you are not alone. “Open Door is as transparent as possible, but it is difficult,” she said. “It looks like you can get a lot of different information, depending on where you look. I would encourage people to call their primary care provider if they have any questions. ”