The first batches of COVID-19 vaccines were given mainly to healthcare professionals, but a large group of community members could start accessing next week: people over 65.
Santa Barbara County follows California’s phased vaccine delivery system and is about to finish the first priority groups of health professionals, emergency medical workers and long-term care facility residents and residents such as homes of qualified elderly people.
“We plan to double direct efforts this week so that we can end Phase 1a,” Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso told the Board of Supervisors this week.
Residents over 75 are the next eligible group, but the state this week decided to expand it to everyone aged 65 and over.
This is a much larger group, and it is much earlier than the Department of Public Health expected, Do-Reynoso told Noozhawk on Wednesday.
“Age will come before essential workers (in the distribution of the vaccine), unless you have already registered and consulted them,” said Do-Reynoso.
“These are the ones that are showing up in our hospitals and, unfortunately, are suffering from very serious to fatal consequences.”
So far, eligible people have been found in a top-down approach through their employers or the congregated facilities where they live.
For future groups, the county will need to collaborate with health professionals and community groups to notify people that they are eligible and tell them how to make vaccination schedules for both doses.
An employee at Lompoc Valley Medical Center holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo from Lompoc Valley Medical Center)
The county plans to offer online consultation registration, have direct contact with qualified people through healthcare providers and use call centers.
“2-1-1 call centers will be able to record appointments, and that includes people who do not have access to online platforms or who cannot linguistically access them,” she said.
When access is open to all adults, which is expected “sometime this spring,” the county plans to establish mass vaccination clinics and outreach campaigns to spread the word, she said.
There will likely be places for moving vehicles, places for walking and places for consultation only throughout the county and mobile vaccination clinics to serve people who cannot access the main sites.
The Department of Public Health is already asking partners in the local personal health system to work in these mass vaccination community sites.
“To mass vaccinate our county, it cannot be just us; it has to be everyone, ”said Do-Reynoso.
Do-Reynoso emphasized that the vaccination distribution process is dynamic and political decisions come from the state and federal governments every day.
The county has a vaccine information website at https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
The levels of vaccine distribution and the estimated schedule
The municipality requests and receives an order for vaccines each week, and maintains some to vaccinate people through its clinics. He allocates most doses to a network of vaccine suppliers: hospitals, community clinics, doctors’ offices and retail pharmacies.
The state and county use a priority system of levels and levels, as supplies are limited.
(Photo from Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health)
It is based on the idea of administering the first vaccinations to people who may be exposed to the virus at work (essential workers, including those in the health field) and people who are likely to become seriously ill (the elderly and people with serious medical conditions).
The idea was to finish one layer at a time and move on to the next.
However, this system created bottlenecks, as hospitals and clinics were left with extra doses and without people authorized to administer them.
California opened this week and created a larger group of eligible people, and the county expects faster vaccinations because of that.
“I think that, because of the strict classification system, we were paralyzed for a while,” said Do-Reynoso.
California officials decided on Wednesday that instead of vaccinating residents 75 and older in the next group, they should be 65 or older – a much larger group of eligible people.
Guidance for using each dose also leads to situations where some providers get ahead of others.
The Lompoc Valley Medical Center announced on Wednesday that it will vaccinate some of its own patients aged 75 and over. The center has already vaccinated all employees and vendors who deal with patients, and had additional doses that it needed to use, said Do-Reynoso.
Do-Reynoso admitted that the Department of Public Health was not notified that the LVMC would announce the change and said it would have been nice to have coordinated it better.
The county has received many calls from older adults who say most are not fair to non-residents of Lompoc, she said.
“What we are saying is that now what Lompoc is doing can be interpreted as making the best use of the vaccine assigned to them,” she said. “We don’t want it to go out in the fridge or be wasted.
“For those who are not part of the healthcare network, unfortunately, which is 75 years old, the Department of Public Health will expand to the 75-year age range, perhaps already next week.”
Health professionals who deal with patients are currently eligible for the vaccine and can register for consultations through the county’s website here.
“Currently, individuals who provide direct patient care or work in patient care areas are eligible,” not people who work from home, according to the county.
(Photo from Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health)
Cottage Health is hosting a vaccination clinic at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital for qualified health professionals who live or work in Santa Barbara County on Fridays and Saturdays. The website has more information and a pre-registration form.
According to the current schedule, people aged 65 and over are expected to be eligible starting next week.
In February and March, this will expand to people at risk of exposure at work in fields, including:
“Education
»Childcare
»Emergency services
»Food / grocery and agriculture
“Transportation and logistics
»Industrial, commercial, residential and shelter facilities and services
»Critical Manufacturing
»Congregation that establishes shelters and detention centers
After that, come people over 60 and people with underlying health problems or disabilities that increase the risk of serious COVID-19 if infected.
In addition, those at risk of exposure at work in the following sectors:
“Water and sewage
“Defense
“Energy
»Chemical and hazardous materials
»Communications and IT
“Financial services
»Government operations / essential community-based functions
As Do-Reynoso said, the county hopes to open mass vaccination clinics later this spring.
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