The first batches of COVID-19 vaccines have been given primarily to health workers, but a large group of community members could begin accessing them next week: people over the age of 65.
Santa Barbara County is following California’s gradual vaccine distribution system and is nearing completion of the first priority groups of health care workers, emergency medical service personnel and staff and care facility residents. long-term as residences for qualified seniors.
“We anticipate doubling our practical efforts this week to be able to complete phase 1,” Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso, director of Public Health, said this week.
Residents over the age of 75 are the next eligible group, but the state decided this week to extend it to everyone 65 and older.
This is a much larger group and is much faster than the Department of Public Health expected, Do-Reynoso told Noozhawk on Wednesday.
“The age will come before the essential workers (in the vaccine assignment) unless you have already registered them and assigned them appointments,” Do-Reynoso said.
“This is what appears in our hospitals and this is what unfortunately suffers serious results until death.”
So far, eligible people have found themselves in a top-down approach through their employers or the congregated facilities where they live.
For future groups, the county will need to work with health care providers and community groups to notify people who are eligible and tell them how to make vaccination appointments for both doses.
A worker at the Lompoc Valley Medical Center holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo from the Lompoc Valley Medical Center)
The county plans to offer online appointment registration, provide direct information to eligible individuals through health care providers, and use call centers.
“2-1-1 call centers will be able to register appointments, and this includes people who don’t have access to online platforms or who linguistically can’t access them,” he said.
When access is open to all adults, which is expected “sometime this spring,” the county plans to establish mass vaccination clinics and outreach campaigns to spread the news, he said.
There will likely be driving sites, access sites, and county-only appointment-only locations and mobile vaccination clinics to care for people who can’t access the main locations.
The Department of Public Health is already asking members of the local personal health system to take the places of the mass vaccination community.
“Massively vaccinating our county cannot be just us; it has to be everyone, ”Do-Reynoso said.
Do-Reynoso stressed that the process of distributing vaccination is dynamic and that every day state and federal governments enter with political decisions.
The county has a vaccine information website at https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
Vaccine distribution levels and estimated timing
The county requests and receives an order for vaccines each week and keeps some to vaccinate people through its clinics. It allocates the majority of doses to a network of vaccine providers: hospitals, community clinics, medical offices, and retail pharmacies.
The state and county use a priority system of phases and levels, as supplies are limited.
(Photo from the public health department of Santa Barbara County)
It is based on the idea of giving the first vaccines to people who are likely to be exposed to the virus at work (essential workers, including those in health care) and to people who are susceptible to serious illnesses (the elderly and people with illnesses). serious).
The idea was to finish one level each time and move on to the next.
However, this system created bottlenecks as hospitals and clinics were left with additional doses and no people were allowed to give them.
California opened it this week and created a larger group of eligible people and the county expects faster vaccinations because of this.
“I think because of the rigorous level system, we were paralyzed for a while,” Do-Reynoso said.
California officials decided Wednesday that instead of vaccinating residents 75 or older in the next group, they should be over 65, a much larger group of eligible people.
The direction of using all doses also leads to situations where some providers outperform others.
Lompoc Valley Medical Center announced Wednesday that it will vaccinate some of its own patients who are 75 years of age or older. The center already vaccinated all providers and staff members against patients and had additional doses it needed to use, Do-Reynoso said.
Do-Reynoso admitted that the Department of Public Health did not receive any notification, LVMC would announce the transfer and said it would have been nice to have coordinated it better.
The county has received many phone calls from older adults saying the maximum is not fair to non-residents in Lompoc, he said.
“So what we’re saying is that right now what Lompoc is doing could be interpreted as the best use of the vaccine that’s been assigned to them,” he said. “We don’t want it to languish in the fridge or be wasted.
“For those who are unfortunately not part of the health network, who have 75, the Department of Public Health will be extended to 75 as soon as possible next week.”
Currently, health care workers facing patients are eligible for the vaccine and can register for appointments through the county website here.
“People who provide direct patient care or work in patient care areas are currently eligible,” and not people who work from home, according to the county.
(Photo from the public health department of Santa Barbara County)
Cottage Health hosts a vaccine clinic at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital for eligible health workers who live or work in Santa Barbara County on Friday and Saturday. The website has more information and a pre-registration form.
Under the current schedule, people aged 65 and over are expected to be eligible starting next week.
In February and March, this will be extended to people at risk of occupational exposure in fields such as:
»Education
»Daycare
»Emergency services
»Food / supermarket and agriculture
»Transport and logistics
»Industrial, commercial, residential and protection facilities and services
»Critical manufacturing
»Congregate the establishment of shelters and detention centers
Then there are people over the age of 60 and people with underlying illnesses or disabilities who increase their risk of severe COVID-19 if they are infected.
In addition, those at risk of occupational exposure to the following sectors:
»Water and wastewater
»Defense
»Energy
»Chemical and hazardous materials
»Communications and computer science
»Financial services
»Government operations / essential community-based functions
As Do-Reynoso said, the county hopes to open mass vaccination clinics sometime this spring.
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– Noozhawk Management Editor Giana Magnoli can be contacted at . (You need JavaScript enabled to view this email address). Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews i @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.