Santa Clara County has stopped scheduling appointments for the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, citing a low and unpredictable supply of doses from the state as a reason.
The news comes at a time when a number of Bay Area officials, including in Santa Clara County, reject the state’s handling of vaccine distribution – from an equity program, they argue that the disadvantages of underserved areas the region to turn to giant insurance company Blue Shield for help. state vaccine program.
“Due to the state’s low vaccine supply and the need to conserve stock for second dose appointments, the County Health System stopped scheduling first dose appointments on Friday, March 5, except for a limited number of consultations at community-based locations, “the county said in a statement.” The county will resume scheduling appointments for the first dose immediately when the vaccine supply received from the state allows. “
On Wednesday, the county said it notified “several thousand” of Kaiser patients who had scheduled appointments through the county from March 11 to 21 that they were being transferred back to Kaiser because of supply problems.
“The county is transferring the appointments of Kaiser patients to Kaiser because the state has assured Kaiser that it will have enough vaccine for its members and vaccination sites, while the county has not received such a commitment for the vulnerable and uninsured populations we serve,” Santa Clara County said.
Patients are under 75, the county said, adding that Kaiser told the county that he would prioritize scheduling appointments for these transferred patients.
Kaiser said in a statement that, although “vaccine supply remains limited and unpredictable at times for all providers, including Kaiser Permanente, we are pleased to be able to supply vaccines to members of Kaiser Permanente whose appointments have just been canceled. for Santa Clara County due to a lack of vaccine in the county. ”
“In the coming days, we will be contacting these members directly to reschedule their appointments as soon as possible,” said Kaiser. “We will also continue to vaccinate members of the community as the vaccine supplies allow, regardless of their health plan, through our Kaiser Permanente medical centers and through the many vaccination sites that we support with public and private health organizations. We do not anticipate that this situation will affect vaccination appointments already scheduled at our facilities. “
County executive Jeff Smith expressed frustration with the state on Wednesday, saying, “We don’t know where decisions are being made about allocations. We ask and it appears that (the California Department of Public Health) is no longer involved in allocation decisions – and allocation decisions are being made by government and Blue Shield operations, so we do not know how much the Blue Shield agreement influenced, if is what influenced him. “
In a statement, the state’s public health department said: “The supply of vaccines is limited by general manufacturing. The federal government said it expects the supply to increase significantly in April and May. We are working with Blue Shield to create a vaccination network that will be able to deliver 4 million doses per week by the end of April. “
Vaccine supply has declined across the state, in part due to the shortage of the vaccine expected from Johnson & Johnson. Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that the state did not expect to receive more doses of the vaccine in the immediate future, but expected that the overall supply of the vaccine “would really start to change next month and the next month.”
The issues could be exacerbated on Monday, when the state said the vaccine’s eligibility would expand to Californians with certain disabilities and conditions.
“At this point, we are predicting that the allocation will be less than we need, so we will have to reevaluate after we find out about our new allocation,” said Smith. “Due to dose limitations, inventory, I have to say, we have to limit the number of appointments in order to adjust the inventory we have, and we have requirements for second doses that we can’t really skip, so what would happen means that if we get less vaccine , we will have to further restrict the nominations. “