Santa Barbara County will begin vaccinating people over 65 next week Coronavirus crisis

People over the age of 65 may begin making appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine in Santa Barbara County next week, the Department of Public Health announced Friday.

During the first two months of vaccine distribution, the county focused on health care workers, long-term caregivers, and people 75 and older.

The head of public health, Dr. Henning Ansorg, estimated that at least two-thirds of the local population of more than 75 people have been vaccinated at this time and that residents can continue to book appointments, even when eligibility is extended to more people.

Van Do-Reynoso, director of public health, said people 65 and older can start signing up for appointments on Feb. 16, next Tuesday.

Workers in the education, childcare, food and agriculture industries cannot yet register.

In addition, state officials announced Friday that as of March 15, people between the ages of 16 and 64 who are disabled or at high risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 will be eligible to receive the vaccine.

Underlying conditions established in the guidelines include cancer, chronic stage four or more kidney disease, chronic lung disease, Down syndrome, pregnancy, heart disease, severe obesity, and type 2 diabetes. , others.

As the situation expands, the county will first move to people 65 and older, Do-Reynoso said during a briefing Friday.

“I just want to settle for reality,” he added.

The county receives about 6,000 doses of vaccine per week and it is estimated that the age group between 65 and 74 is 41,000 people, he said.

“So the takeaway is that the supply of vaccines is still very limited,” he said, adding that vaccine providers also make sure everyone who has already received a first dose receives a second dose on time.

“We have a lot more people than we have vaccines and we ask that, until the supply of vaccines increases, the community allows those at the highest risk of exposure and serious health outcomes, so they can make their appointment with the vaccine first. ”

The California Department of Public Health has developed priority vaccine distribution guidelines for people considered at high risk of exposure to the virus and serious illness if they become infected.

Each county had some discretion and Santa Barbara County decided to start with more than 75 residents before expanding to this larger group of 65 more, Do-Reynoso said.

Ansorg said the county was prepared to administer three times the number of vaccines it has received so far, and that these early shortages caused much frustration.

“This lack made it necessary to prioritize the most vulnerable population to receive the vaccine first. These first two difficult months could have been avoided if the (federal) government had insured and sent the number of doses they had promised. We had prepared according to his promises, ”he said.

Now, production is intensifying nationally and a third Johnson & Johnson vaccine will likely be available soon in the United States, he added.

From mid-March, the state will transfer the distribution of vaccines to an external administrator. California’s Blue Shield will then assign vaccines directly to pharmacies, public and private health care networks, hospitals, emerging sites, and community health care centers.

This transition will streamline vaccine distribution and optimize the vaccine supply chain, Ansorg said.

As of Friday, the county has received 61,000 doses of the vaccine and has administered 99% of those doses, Do-Reynoso shared. “This is a huge celebration for our community,” he said.

Public Health on Friday unveiled a new COVID-19 vaccine board, which provided information such as doses administered by age, race, ethnicity and gender. The board also describes the number of vaccines assigned, ordered, and administered, as well as the percentage of fully vaccinated population in each region of the county.

With the mutation and spread of the virus, Ansorg said N95 masks are ideal for protecting community members from the virus. Surgical masks are designed to protect the wearer’s environment, but they are not so sufficient to protect him from the outside, Ansorg said.

To make sure the mask fits well enough to protect the user, he said some have found a solution by doing double masking.

Public Health reported 87 new cases of COVID-19 on Friday, the lowest daily number since Dec. 19.

“When I looked this morning, I was very excited,” Ansorg said. “Our local case indices and test positivity indices have finally come down. That is a great relief for all of us. “

There were still 741 cases considered infectious across the county, also the lowest number of active cases reported since Dec. 13.

There were 139 COVID-19 patients hospitalized across the county and 28 required intensive care. According to Public Health, the county’s ICU availability was 31.6%.

A new mortality from COVID-19 was reported on Friday. The individual was over 70 years old, had underlying medical conditions and resided in Santa Maria.

So far there have been 367 COVID-19-related fatalities.

Of the new cases on Friday, 29 were from Santa Barbara and 16 were from Lompoc.

Santa Maria and the unincorporated area of ​​the Goleta and Gaviota valleys reported seven new cases, the Santa Ynez valley counted six and Isla Vista recorded five.

The Montecito-Summerland-Carpentry, Schooner, and unincorporated areas of North County reported three new cases and Orcutt reported one.

There were seven pending geographic location cases.

There have been 30,586 confirmed cases in the county since the pandemic began.

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