Due to the supply of low, unpredictable vaccines from the state, Santa Clara County has transferred thousands of appointments, county officials said Wednesday.
About 8,500 appointments for Kaiser Permanente patients scheduled across the county between Thursday and March 21 will be transferred to Kaiser to reschedule.
The reason for the transfer is because the state has “assured” Kaiser that it will have enough vaccine for its members, while the county received “no commitment” for uninsured and vulnerable residents, officials said. county.
Despite getting an additional allocation of 7,500 Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the county only received 3,000 more doses than last week. This is because the county received 1,400 shots against Modern less and 3,510 fewer Pfizer shots than the previous week, according to county data.
But this is not because the state has received fewer vaccines against Moderna and Pfizer. By contrast, the state received 29,900 more modern shots and 40,950 more shots from Pfizer.
The state has assigned 40% of vaccines to 400 lower-income zip codes in the state, but no zip code has been identified in Santa Clara County, which may explain why allocations have been lower. this week, County Tests and Vaccines. The official, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib told the County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.
“We are not included in this [400 ZIP codes] so, again, our efforts in equity are compromised by insufficient vaccines and the approach that the state has everywhere except us, ”Fenstersheib said.
At a press conference last week, Supervisor Cindy Chávez said the state needed to “deal with everything [counties] fairly, ”noting the high and disproportionate positivity rates of COVID-19 in eastern San Jose and southern county.
The county has the capacity to inoculate between 12,000 and 15,000 people a day, but supply constraints allow the county to give 8,000 shots a day, Fenstersheib said.
All people transferred are Kaiser members under the age of 75, according to the county public health department.
The public health department also noted that Kaiser will prioritize scheduling vaccine appointments through its system for transferring patients.
“The decision to return these patients to Kaiser for their vaccine appointments was made after careful consideration of the options available,” the public health department said in a statement. “This transfer of appointments will prevent further cancellations of consultations and vaccination consultations.”
As of Wednesday, the county has not canceled any appointments due to the supply of vaccines, it has only relocated Kaiser’s 8,500 patients, according to the county’s emergency operations center.
The county argues that its top priority in terms of inoculation is to ensure access to vaccines for the communities most affected by COVID-19.