Santa Clara County is increasing vaccines to try to finish providing them to health workers before moving on to the next group.
So far, the launch has been slow across the bay area and across the country, but the next phase is expected to go much faster.
Kevin Dizon is now among the more than 47,000 Santa Clara County health workers to get his appointment card with the COVID-19 vaccine, along with his first shot of the vaccine.
“I didn’t really think I would get it, I thought it would be at a later level and then they added the dental field,” Dizon said.
The state has expanded Phase 1A eligibility to include all types of health care workers, such as Dizon, who is a dental hygienist.
But so far only a third of the country’s health workers have been shot.
Vaccines will not be extended to the next group until that group is finished, which should be in a couple of weeks.
Health organizations across the Bay Area are already sending messages to members, including a massive email from Sutter Health.
According to the message, group 1B, which includes patients aged 65 to 74 and teachers, will soon be able to book vaccine appointments online.
Santa Clara County Public Health plans to open a second vaccination center, which could expand capacity to 6,000 shots a day.
Private groups such as Walgreens and CVS are added to this capability.
“We’re talking about more, such as private hospitals like the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Kaiser, which also administer their vaccines separately,” said Otto Lee, Santa Clara County Supervisor.
But this expanded capacity depends on the availability of vaccines.
“Vaccines are coming in waves,” said Dr. Jennifer Tong of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. “We get a thickness of 50 to 100,000 at a time, and one of our key factors to be able to further expand capacity is whether or not we will have enough vaccine.”