COVID vaccine updates: Kaiser opens to 65-plus; California hits 8 million shots
California is continuing to get back on track in its campaign to mass vaccinate against COVID-19 after weather-related supply issues across the U.S. dealt a setback last week.
The California Department of Public Health on its online vaccine data tracker reported Thursday providers have administered 8,003,120 doses, an increase of 239,452 from Wednesday after the state reported about 182,000 shots from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Due to delayed dose deliveries from last week’s allotment arriving this week instead, CDPH data show more than 2 million doses have been shipped to providers since last Friday.
Local health offices and hospital systems have been delivered about 10.5 million doses to date, meaning the state has injected about 76% of what it has received.
Two major priority changes have been announced for March.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently announced California will dedicate at least 10% of its vaccine supply to education and child care workers starting next Monday though some jurisdictions have already set aside that many or more.
And starting March 15, the state will open eligibility to those ages 16 to 64 who have high-risk health conditions including but not limited to cancer, heart conditions, severe obesity, Type 2 diabetes and pregnancy.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control on Tuesday reported California will receive about 819,000 first doses next week, up from about 763,000 this week. The state will get about 1.38 million shots in total next week, including its second-dose allocation.
The numbers from CDPH don’t distinguish between first and second doses, but the CDC says more than 5.7 million in California have received at least one dose of Pfizer or Moderna, and close to 2.25 million have had both doses. This means about 19% of the state’s adult population is at least partially vaccinated and 7.5% of adults are fully vaccinated.
The COVID-19 vaccines currently available require two shots. Pfizer’s shots should be taken three weeks apart and Moderna’s four weeks apart. CDPH and the CDC each advise that the timeline can be stretched to a maximum of six weeks, if administering the shots on schedule is “not feasible.”
In another major development, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported Wednesday it found Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to be safe and effective, all but assuring emergency use authorization soon.
An FDA advisory committee will meet Friday to consider whether to recommend authorization for the J&J shot. If the committee recommends as anticipated, the shot could get clearance within a few days and could potentially begin to ship out as early as next week.
The J&J vaccine can be kept for months at refrigerator temperatures, whereas Pfizer and Moderna’s vials are supposed to be stored at much colder temperatures, giving J&J a significant logistics advantage.
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Tuesday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 271,160 (17,294 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 39,128 (20,263 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 103,040 (25,732 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 49,624 (22,192 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: 1A (front-line health workers; long-term care residents) and early stages of 1B (adults 65 and older; essential workers in some sectors)
▪ Received directly: Not reported; county awaiting state data update, according to local health office
▪ Administered: 219,754, through last Friday. Of those, 173,237 were administered to Sacramento County residents: 123,629 first doses and 47,947 second doses.
The county is holding two clinics in partnership with Dignity Health: one Friday at the Sacramento City Unified School District Serna Center, and one Saturday at Del Campo High School. Details are available on the Sacramento County public health website, dhs.saccounty.net.
The county also continues to offer appointments at two university clinics: one at the Sacramento State campus and another at California Northstate University in Elk Grove.
The university clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses.
El Dorado
▪ Phase: 1A and first tier of 1B “with an emphasis on residents 75 and older”
▪ Received: 38,390 total doses as of Monday.
▪ Administered: Approximately 23,000 doses (60% of received), according to the county website. Remaining doses “are earmarked for already-scheduled clinics and appointments,” the county says.
El Dorado County says that it has one retail pharmacy participating in the federal program: the CVS store on Palmer Drive in Cameron Park. Appointments can be made through the CVS website or CVS pharmacy app.
Placer
▪ Phase: 1A; first tier of 1B “partially in progress”
▪ Received: Not updated since late January.
▪ Administered: Not updated since late January.
After postponing first-dose clinics this week due to the weather-related delays, Placer set up county-run clinics for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. All are fully booked.
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.
Information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
Yolo
▪ Received: At least 15,800 total first and second doses, county spokeswoman Carolyn Jhajj said Feb. 11.
▪ Administered: 11,837 first doses through Sunday and 6,204 second doses through last Thursday
Yolo announced last week it will begin distributing vaccine doses to Phase 1B essential workers including teachers and child care, emergency services and food and agriculture.
More details regarding county-run clinics are available on the county website at yolocounty.org. As of midday Wednesday, all clinics announced this week are private, including two for agricultural workers.
Hospital systems
Hospital systems operating in multiple counties receive their own allocations from the state.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients 65 and older after earlier lack of supply had kept appointments limited to those 75 and up, according to its patient website. It is still prioritizing those 65 and older who have high risk of exposure or existing medical conditions.
In a Wednesday update to its website, 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, each figure boosted by tens of thousands compared to late last week.
UC Davis Health in a Tuesday update said it has started vaccinating based on occupation in addition to patients who are 65 and older.
The provider says it is now vaccinating “patients who work in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture” in line with the state’s Phase 1B guidelines. It sent occupation surveys to patients over the weekend.
Given recent supply issues, UC Davis Health says there is “a possibility your second dose could be delayed,” but advises that this isn’t a problem.
“The CDC advises that you can receive the second COVID-19 vaccine up to 42 days (or 6 weeks) after the first dose,” the provider’s vaccine webpage explains.
Sutter Health opened its appointments to those 65 or older earlier in February, opening centers in Sacramento and Roseville to vaccinate patients, but said a little less than a week before the weather supply issues that it had stopped booking those appointments due to lack of supply. Scheduling of those has been paused “until further notice.”
Sutter Health has administered more than 260,000 doses of vaccine to date to health care workers and patients ages 65 and older, spokeswoman Liz Madison said last Thursday.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has vaccinated 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.
