Santa Clara County public health officials now say that anyone 65 and older can get the vaccine anywhere in the county.
The new “no wrong door” county policy, announced on Thursday morning, makes it possible for older people to be vaccinated, regardless of who their normal medical provider is.
“A Kaiser patient can go to the county, a Stanford patient can go to Kaiser, a county patient can go to Stanford (to be vaccinated),” said county health officer, Dr. Sara Cody. “No matter where you go, we want you to be vaccinated.”
County officials said the move would take effect immediately in the county’s hospital system, although it may take a few days for all South Bay vaccine providers to transition.
The announcement came a day after health officials in eight Bay Area counties recommended that all health systems start vaccinating residents 65 and older.
“Our effort to vaccinate more and more people requires simplicity and clarity and we have had very little of both, frankly, to this day,” said county supervisor Joe Simitian. “If we say that we are all in this together, we have to be sincere.
Simitian said access to the vaccine should not depend on which health provider the person has, or how many vaccines they have in a given week.
This week, Kaiser also announced that it canceled more than 5,000 appointments for patients aged 65 and over, because the hospital “did not receive the expected vaccine supply” when the appointments were scheduled. The move caused frustration and fear among many Kaiser patients who were eager to receive the coveted vaccine.
“In the past three weeks, it became clear, looking at the numbers and talking to other health systems, that (other hospitals) did not receive enough doses to care for their patients,” said county executive Jeff Smith. “Kaiser has been significantly reduced, considering that they represent about 40% of the insured population (in California).”
Smith said the recent cancellations “were a factor” in this latest policy change.
“When we saw that Kaiser was forced to cancel … We had to ask ourselves how we can fix this and how we can intervene in the best possible way,” said Smith.
More than 80% of COVID-19 deaths in Santa Clara County occurred in residents 65 and older.
“We must, and can, prevent as many of these deaths as we can collectively,” said Cody.
About 37% of residents over 75 years of age have been vaccinated so far, while about 28% of the population over 65 has been vaccinated, according to the county executive.
“The state’s complex vaccine distribution and allocation system, combined with a shortage of vaccine supplies, has led to an uneven distribution of vaccines across the county, depending on where people receive medical care,” said Smith. “The ‘no wrong door’ approach that we are implementing is designed to get available vaccines to arms as quickly and equitably as possible in order to save lives.”
At the same time, South Bay officials have asked the state to speed up the distribution of vaccines and increase distribution to Santa Clara County, which faces a slowdown in shipments.
About 180,000 county residents received at least one dose of the vaccine, while just over 48,000 received the two doses required to offer complete protection against the disease.
On Thursday, Santa Clara County reported more than 103,000 cumulative cases of COVID-19 and 1,473 deaths from the disease.
For the latest information on vaccine eligibility, visit www.sccfreevax.org. This week, the municipality also started to operate a telephone line for residents without Internet access or who need additional assistance to make the appointment.
Call Center Valley Connection can be reached at 408-970-2000. The center is open from Monday to Friday from 7 am to 9 pm and on Saturdays and Sundays from 8 am to 4:30 pm. Assistance is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] or follow @MadelynGReese on twitter.