Santa Clara County’s public health system is on track to vaccinate 30,000 residents a week, officials said on Friday.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has established five vaccination sites, including mass vaccination sites on Berger Drive and Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
Berger has the capacity to vaccinate 1,300 people and Fairgrounds can vaccinate 1,800 people a day.
Next week, another vaccination site will open in Mountain View, and the county plans to open a third mass vaccination site with more capacity than the fairground, said Dr. Jennifer Tong, associate medical director for the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
“Our system alone vaccinated more than 3,000 individuals this Monday, more than 4,000 this week on Tuesday and Wednesday each, more than 5,000 yesterday, and we have more than 6,000 appointments scheduled for today,” said Tong. “So, we’re accelerating very quickly.”
The County Health System alone administered 32,352 first doses and 6,594 second doses to qualified health professionals and individuals aged 75 and over in the county on Thursday.
But the biggest obstacle to vaccinating more people is the supply of the vaccine.
“We really need a stable and predictable supply to be able to predict our capacity and expand our capacity in the future,” said Tong.
County attorney James Williams said the fault lies with the federal government, which changes federal and state guidelines on a daily basis and, consequently, a lot of misinformation.
“We learned a few days ago, for example, that the federal government would release stocks of vaccine that were being maintained for a second dose,” said Williams. “We learned this morning that there is no such stock.”
The other big problem is that the vaccine’s distribution is fragmented, with no real plan in place in the county, Williams said.
Major healthcare systems in several counties, like Kaiser Permanente, obtain their vaccines from the state – what Williams said was the “crux of the challenge” because the majority of the population is insured by these major healthcare systems.
Federal agencies also govern themselves in the distribution of vaccines and a federal program with Walgreens and CVS leads the distribution of vaccines to residents and employees in long-term care facilities.
A January 7 public health order seeks to mediate this problem by requiring hospitals, clinics and all vaccine administrators to share information with the county and submit a vaccination plan by February 1.
But the health order can only do so much because federal programs and agencies are not required to share information with the county, Williams said.
However, county officials like Supervisor Otto Lee are hopeful of a new administration, vaccination will be better.
“New President-elect Biden talked about 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days in office,” said Lee. “And we will hold you accountable for making sure that happens.”
In the meantime, as the county has seen its biggest increase so far, authorities are begging residents to follow health orders, stay at home as long as possible and avoid meetings.
“Now we are finally feeling the impact of Thanksgiving and Christmas parties,” said Lee. “This number is not going to decrease unless we all work hard together to stay socially apart, wear masks and, unless it’s absolutely necessary, please don’t go out and get together. “
For more information about vaccination in Santa Clara County, visit sccfreevax.org.