SANTA CLARA COUNTY – Santa Clara County health officials say the supply of “continued insufficient” coronavirus vaccines they receive from the state may not improve significantly for “a few weeks,” forcing them to cancel thousands more first-dose appointments across the region.
“All we need to drastically expand access to vaccines is more vaccine, and we are prepared and waiting,” county executive Jeff Smith said in a statement Thursday.
County officials have continued to fight the implementation of state vaccines, after retiring out loud against plans to get insurance giant Blue Shield to run the state’s vaccination program.
Millions more Californians were eligible to receive shots Monday and insufficient supply of vaccines makes many of them unable to schedule an appointment for weeks.
The county said Thursday it has again notified “several thousand” Kaiser patients that the scheduled first vaccination appointments at the county’s vaccination sites will be canceled between March 22 and 28.
These patients will be transferred back to Kaiser, which the state has assured will have enough doses for its members, according to the county statement. The county also had to cancel thousands of appointments of Kaiser patients earlier this month.
“The lack of sufficient state supply has been frustrating for everyone, particularly those who are eligible for the vaccine and want to be vaccinated, but have not been able to register,” said Marty Fenstersheib, head of county tests and vaccines. , in a statement.
The county expects vaccine supply to “significantly increase statewide in a few weeks,” bolstered by additional shipments of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. The state promised earlier this month that a reliable flow of vaccines will arrive in early April, but details on the likely distribution of these doses are scarce.
“We want to see the significant capacity we’ve built in full use and look forward to being able to open up pre-dose appointment capacity more broadly as soon as vaccine supply allows,” Smith said.
Despite the current shortage, the county said it is focusing on using its limited supply of first-dose shots to vaccinate the region’s “most disproportionately affected communities,” such as food service workers and farm workers. South County.
The county said it vaccinated agricultural and food workers this week at Lusamerica Foods and Kawahara Nursery in Morgan Hill. On Friday it will operate a clinic in collaboration with Olam Spices and the United Farm Workers Foundation of Gilroy, which will be open to workers from other farms.
“These vaccination events in southern county at food production facilities and farms are critical to reaching our highest-risk frontline workers,” said county deputy director Rocio Luna.
A special four-month investigation conducted by this news organization found that Latinos in six counties in the Bay Area have case rates more than four times those of white residents, and large disparities in testing and vaccination persist.
“The county will continue to do everything possible to ensure equitable access to vaccination and prioritize the communities most at risk,” Luna said.
Limited first-dose vaccines are also offered through community sites in East San Jose and Eastridge Mall along with Stanford Health Care, the county said. There are also preparations for automatic vaccinations at Gilroy High School, where a place of interest is already running.
You can get information about when and where you can get a county vaccine at sccFreeVax.org.