|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Update: COVID-19 vaccinations will now be available to all residents and workers in Santa Clara County who are 65 years and older, regardless of where they receive their health care, county officials announced on Thursday morning. Read the story here.
The scarcity of COVID-19 vaccine doses throughout the Bay Area has caused health officials in eight counties to urge all health care providers to prioritize injections for residents ages 65 and up because of the virus’ high mortality rate among older people.
Bay Area health departments are collaborating with medical providers to get the shots into people’s arms as quickly as possible. Marin, Napa, Santa Cruz and Solano counties are prioritizing residents ages 75 and older. Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties are prioritizing people ages 65 and older. The shift to an age-based system for the vaccines is in keeping with the state’s policy and is in addition to continuing vaccines for Phase 1A-eligible health care workers, many of whom are now expecting their second doses, according to a joint press release issued Feb. 3.
“Across the region, most COVID-19 deaths have been in the 65-and-up age group. Thus, focusing vaccination efforts on those at greatest risk of death will have the biggest immediate impact on saving lives,” county officials said in the statement.
The older demographic is bearing a staggering proportion of COVID-19-related deaths. As of Jan. 28, upward of 80% of the deaths are among the 65-plus age group, according to the release. This older demographic makes up 81% of deaths in Santa Clara County and 84% in San Mateo County. Other counties also have high numbers of deaths in this age group: Contra Costa, 82%; Marin, 92%; Napa, 79%; San Francisco, 83%; Santa Cruz, 90%; and Solano, 78%.
“Three out of four COVID-19 deaths in Marin are among residents age 75 or older,” said Dr. Matt Willis, public health officer for Marin County, which has the highest per capita older adult population of any California county. “A vaccine offered to a resident above age 75 is 300 times more likely to save a life than a vaccine offered to someone under the age of 50.”
The Bay Area continues to receive only a small fraction of the doses needed to vaccinate residents ages 65 and older, much less than the broader occupation-based groups the state has included in Phase 1B Tier 1, including educators, food and agricultural workers, and emergency services personnel, health officials noted. Weekly dose allocations from the state, which is based on a formula officials said is designed to ensure fair distribution across California, have slowed compared to shipments in December and early January. At the current pace, it would require several weeks to offer a first dose to all older adults who would like to be vaccinated, they said.
“We need to be direct and honest with the public that, although we want to vaccinate everyone, right now we just don’t have enough vaccine to do so. Given limited supply of vaccine, we must prioritize vaccinating those at greatest risk of death or serious illness. We are anxious to vaccinate a much broader segment of the population, and are ready to do so as soon as vaccine supplies allow,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said.
The limited vaccine supply is causing widespread inability to make new appointments, and in some cases, can lead to cancellations of existing appointments. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines require a second dose a few weeks after the first; the need for second doses limits the number of people who can be newly vaccinated each week, the region’s health officials said.
Also on Wednesday, President Joe Biden’s administration and Gov. Gavin Newsom announced separately that they are launching a pilot mass-vaccination effort in the state. They will initially be opening centers at the Oakland Coliseum and at California State University, Los Angeles where they expect to begin vaccinating a minimum of 6,000 people a day. Federal officials also said they are increasing vaccine distribution to states by 20%.
People would be able to make appointments through the state’s new website, myturn.ca.gov, which notifies users when it is their turn for a vaccine.
The state is scheduled to receive more than 1 million doses of the vaccines this week, which Newsom said is “an encouraging sign.”
California has now tripled its number of daily vaccinations; it has risen from being at the bottom tier to the top quarter of U.S. states for vaccine administration, he said. The state is also reallocating about half of the 170,000 doses that remain in storage at CVS Pharmacy to Kaiser Permanente to use in minority and low-income communities where virus infection rates have been high, he said.
The state is also seeing improvements in case and hospitalization numbers, which state Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly on Tuesday attributed to regional stay-at-home orders and an increase in public adherence to social distancing, mask wearing and travel protocols. One month ago, the state had 60,000 new cases; today, it has 10,501 new cases, he said. The seven-day positivity rate has dropped from 14.3% on Jan. 7 to 6.1% today. The state also has a 22% decline in intensive care unit occupancy.
Health officials warned, however, that they are concerned about new variants that could be more infectious. The state has 150 cases of the U.K. variant and 960 cases of the West Coast variants, Newsom said. With the Super Bowl taking place this weekend, health officials said they are concerned the state could see another surge if people don’t use caution. They urged the public to continue to socialize with their household members only or to hold any Super Bowl gatherings outside and maintain all social distancing and mask protocols.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
Hells Angels member reaches plea deal in fatal punch case at Mountain View concertApril 22, 2026 8:00 am