More than 3,600 Humboldt County Phase IA health care providers have received their first COVID-19 vaccine since the first shipment arrived in the county in mid-December. The administration of the remaining 2,000 doses from the first round will continue tomorrow.
Public Health is working closely with the county’s Emergency Operations Center to establish clinics to continue administering the first doses to the remaining people in the Phase 1A category, which continues to include health-related entities. The invite-only clinics are scheduled to operate three days a week for the next six weeks and will include vaccinations from health care teams in offices that are not part of a larger health care organization, such as a hospital or clinic network.
The second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which include a primer dose followed by a booster dose 21 days and 28 days later, respectively, are arriving in the municipality and will be administered starting this week.
Although Public Health plans to receive between 1,000 and 2,000 vaccines a week, Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman said: “As the second doses arrive, the arrival of the first doses may decrease, which is what we saw it happen this week ”.
He said that planning for distribution is in progress. St. Joseph Hospital, Mad River Community Hospital, Jerold Phelps Community Hospital, Southern Humboldt Community Healthcare District, United Indian Health Services, Open Door Community Health Center, Southern Trinity Health Services and Public Health Branch are licensed by the state to administer the vaccine.
“The first step was for each agency to go through its own qualification framework. Now they are expanding to administer vaccines to other qualified providers, and there are thousands of them, ”said Hoffman, adding that this week vaccinators at Mad River and St. Joseph hospitals will shift their focus to administering second doses to employees.
Although the primary function of Public Health is to coordinate the distribution of vaccines and manage contact tracking of positive COVID-19 cases, Public Health nurses intervened to vaccinate when necessary, administering dozens of vaccines to employees in local specialist wards at the end of week and will also run vaccination clinics.
Dr. Hoffman said he is hopeful that the next phase vaccination will start in late winter, but stressed that it depends on many factors. “We depend on how many doses we receive and continue to plan with many contingencies in mind,” he said. “Each agency licensed to administer the vaccine has many other responsibilities to our community. It is important not to overload the system that is also taking care of our society ”.