COVID vaccine: What to know as single-dose vaccine from J&J heads to California
California has in recent days averaged well over 200,000 shots per day in its campaign to mass vaccinate against COVID-19, with supply ramping up by the week and a third vaccine about to become available.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Monday providers have administered 9,087,899 doses, an increase of 315,013 over Sunday’s total.
CDPH in a note said the day’s total, which is the highest yet reported, included more than 90,000 doses added after a “data reporting and integrity initiative” found “doses administered but not previously reported” between Dec. 16 and last Friday.
The numbers from CDPH don’t distinguish between first and second doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that close to 6.3 million Californians have received at least one dose, and about 2.74 million have had both doses.
That means about 21% of the state’s adult population are at least partially vaccinated and 9% of adults are fully vaccinated.
Over the weekend, the Food and Drug Administration granted emergency use authorization to Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine. The drug maker says it will distribute 20 million doses across the U.S. during March, with rollout starting this week.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said California should get about 1.1 million doses of J&J in its first three weeks of distribution, and he tweeted Saturday following the FDA announcement that the state was “expecting around 380,000 doses to arrive as early as this week.”
Weekly allocation totals from the CDC, though, show California receiving about 16% fewer than that estimate for this week, at 320,100 doses.
In another announcement, Newsom and CDPH in a news release Friday said California is on track to have the capacity to administer at least 3 million vaccine doses per week beginning this week.
That’s still far more than the weekly federal supply up to this point. Along with the 320,000 doses from J&J, Pfizer and Moderna are set to ship about 819,000 first doses and 564,000 second doses this week. That all adds up to just over 1.7 million shots.
CDPH data updated Monday show close to 11.2 million doses as “delivered” to vaccine providers, which are mainly local health offices and hospital systems. Nearly 1 million additional doses have been shipped by manufacturers but haven’t yet arrived, according to CDPH.
The CDC on Tuesday will provide states’ updated allocation totals for next week.
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Sunday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 305,006 (19,452 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 44,218 (22,899 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 114,196 (28,518 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 55,831 (24,968 doses per 100,000)
Local officials have cautioned these may represent undercounts of the true number of shots that have been administered, due to data reporting delays and other issues.
Sacramento-area health offices, public clinics and pharmacies
Most county health offices are splitting their direct allocations between their own county-run clinics, non-chain hospitals and other partners, including some Safeway pharmacies.
CVS and Rite Aid offer vaccine appointments at some of their pharmacies across California, including some in Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties, as part of a federal retail pharmacy partnership.
Sacramento
▪ Phase: Partial 1B (adults 65 and older; essential workers in some sectors)
▪ Received directly: Not reported.
▪ Administered: 270,824 to Sacramento County residents through last Friday. Of those, 189,190 were first doses and 81,634 were second doses.
County officials told The Bee on Friday that Sacramento County’s allocation will grow from 14,850 doses last week to 15,020 set to arrive early this week, not counting any potential J&J shipments.
Sacramento’s allocation of Pfizer increased by 1,170, while its share of Moderna dropped by 1,000.
Spokeswoman Brenda Bongiorno noted that the county will be getting the same physical stock of the Pfizer vaccine — six trays — but that the manufacturer and government agencies have given the OK to extract six doses from each vial rather than five; thus, an increase of exactly 20%.
Sacramento County offers drive-thru vaccine clinics at McClellan Park and Natomas High School; and walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove, Sacramento City Unified School District’s Serna Center, Del Campo High School and 11 partnering Safeway pharmacies.
All require appointments in advance. Scheduling and booking information can be found at dhs.saccounty.net. Residents can sign up online for all except the Natomas High clinic; for that, residents must call 916-561-5253 on Mondays between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to make an appointment, according to the county.
The McClellan Park and Northstate clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses. Safeway pharmacies as well as CVS and Rite Aid stores participating in the federal partnership offer Moderna, a four-week wait.
On Monday, SacRT began offering free rides for COVID-19 vaccination appointments.
El Dorado
▪ Phase: 1B “with an emphasis on residents 75 and older”
▪ Received: 38,390 total doses as of Feb. 22.
▪ Administered: Approximately 23,000 doses as of Feb. 22, according to the county website. Remaining doses “are earmarked for already-scheduled clinics and appointments,” the county says.
Information regarding county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics in El Dorado can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
▪ Received: Not updated since late January.
▪ Administered: Not updated since late January.
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville.
Monday’s clinic is fully booked. As of midday Monday, a very limited number of appointment slots were available for a first-dose Pfizer clinic Tuesday. First-dose Moderna appointments are available Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Grounds clinic is open for Placer County residents ages 65 and older as well as those in Phase 1A and 1B who are employed in Placer County.
Placer is also partnered with eight Safeway pharmacies throughout the county.
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin. Appointments have also been made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
More information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Received: At least 15,800 total doses, last updated Feb. 11.
▪ Administered: 11,837 first doses and 7,455 second doses through last Thursday. Clinics from this past weekend will grow both totals, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said in a video briefing Monday.
Yolo has private clinics planned this week for teachers, child care workers and food and agriculture workers, Tan said.
“We will also open up some public spots this week for a clinic later on this week,” she said.
More details regarding county-run clinics are available on the county website at yolocounty.org.
Tan said Yolo County reserved 800 doses, 20% of its supply, last week for education workers, and is administering these in partnership with Dignity Health at clinics in Woodland. At 20%, Yolo is doubling the state’s requirement effective Monday that at least 10% of doses should be reserved for education and child care workers.
Hospital systems
Hospital systems operating in multiple counties receive their own allocations from the state.
Sutter Health continues to pause first-dose appointments, citing “extremely limited supply,” after opening those for residents 65 and older for about a week in early February.
“We appreciate your patience. Please check back often for updates.”
Sutter says it has administered more than 300,000 total doses to date.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients 65 and older after earlier lack of supply had kept appointments limited to those 75 and older for the first several weeks of the rollout.
In an update last week, Kaiser Permanente said it has administered about 404,000 of the 480,000 doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 178,000 future appointments scheduled.
UC Davis Health last week began vaccinating “patients who work in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture” in line with the state’s Phase 1B guidelines.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has vaccinated at least 9,375 patients to date and projects it can vaccinate 18,300 more by March 14, supply pending.
“We are working on a plan for outreach to our patients with medical conditions qualifying them for vaccine in mid-March,” the provider says on its website.
