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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.
The significant change means that patients of Sutter/Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Kaiser Permanente, Stanford Health Care and other providers in the county can now go to any facility that offers the vaccines. The county and the large health care providers came to the agreement after persistent shortages caused many providers to limit or even cancel appointments for the highly coveted vaccines, County Executive Jeff Smith said during a press conference.
Kaiser, which serves an estimated 40% of patients statewide, has been particularly hard hit by vaccine shortages, having received a disproportionately low number of doses, Smith said. The county was already having to dip into its vaccine supply to provide extra doses to some health care providers to make up some of the shortfalls, he said.
Getting the vaccines out quickly and to the most vulnerable populations is crucial, county Health Officers Dr. Sara Cody said.
One year and one week after Santa Clara County identified its first case of COVID-19, the county has had over 100,000 cases and 1,473 deaths. More than 80% of those who succumbed were 65 and older, she said.
“Never did I imagine we would be where we are today,” Cody said. “We must — and we can — prevent more deaths.”
Cody also did not imagine there would be a safe and effective vaccine available so quickly, she said.
“The challenge is to get it into the most vulnerable,” she said. The state still has a scarcity of doses, and its guidelines are changing almost daily, creating chaos, she added.
The new county policy will allow patients to come to any health system, without regard to membership or insurance coverage. That includes the county’s public health system — the second largest in the state after Los Angeles.
“If we say we’re all in this together, we have to mean it,” county Supervisor Joe Simitian said. “We have to give every resident of Santa Clara County access to the vaccine and do it faster.”
Smith said the county public health system, which has a supply that is separate from those of the other large health care providers, has enough doses for two to three weeks. The county is hopeful it will receive an increasing number of doses, as the Biden administration has announced it will increase distribution by as much as 20%.
On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the state expects to receive more than a million doses of vaccine within a week. The state is also partnering with federal officials to open pilot mass-vaccination sites. The first two will be located in Oakland and Los Angeles and could open Feb. 16.
Currently, the county’s public health care system is administering 6,000 doses daily during the work week and 1,000 doses on weekends, Smith said.
“We want to expand to 15,000 doses per day. The big caveat here is getting enough vaccine. We’re ready, willing and able. We’ve got the infrastructure to do it, and all we’re waiting for is more vaccine,” he said.
The county will also provide vaccines through a growing network of sites in communities most heavily impacted by the infections, concentrating on cities in the southern part of the county. The Public Health Department is also continuing its push to vaccinate people in long-term care facilities using its mobile vaccination clinics and to set up at-home visits for those who are homebound and older than age 75, he said.
So far, roughly 37% of county residents over age 75 and 28% of those who are older than 65 have been vaccinated, he said.
Local health providers said they are working in accordance with the county requirements.
“Sutter has made COVID-19 vaccination available to eligible patients in accordance with public health guidance — whether they are existing patients or those outside of our network who register to become patients,” Sutter, which includes the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, said in a statement.
Stanford Health Care also said it would comply with the state and local health departments.
“As the California Department of Public Health and local county health authorities have recently made changes to their vaccine distribution requirements, Stanford Health Care continues to work closely with these health agencies to ensure that eligible groups, as defined by the CDPH, can be vaccinated as soon as possible,” Stanford Health Care said in an updated statement on Thursday.
“Stanford Health Care’s COVID-19 vaccine supply is set and distributed by local health authorities in the counties where we operate, and that supply is variable and unpredictable.”
Kaiser Permanente also said it would work to supply the vaccines to the broader community, with a caveat.
“Kaiser Permanente is committed to getting the COVID-19 vaccine to our members and communities as soon as possible, in accordance with state guidelines, equitably, and as vaccine supplies allow. Right now, given our limited vaccine supplies, we remain focused on vaccinating those most vulnerable and are prioritizing appointments for age 75 and older. We continue to work with public health partners and other health care providers to help get as many people vaccinated as possible As we receive more vaccine we look forward to vaccinating more people in accordance with state guidelines,” the medical provider said in a statement.
“We will update the kp.org/covidvaccine website as new information becomes available.”
Anyone who is currently eligible for the vaccines can make an appointment or obtain information through the county’s vaccination website, sccfreevax.org.
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Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
Th II-4-2021 Stanford says you have to have used Stanford healthcare w/i the last 3 years to ask for a vax appointment.
It seems the county does not plan more than 4 days ahead, so there are no appointments showing for the merely over 75 group.
Just tried to make an appointment when Website showed availability for two dates in February at the fairgrounds, but when we filled out all the questions and got to the end of the process the display indicated NO APPOINTMENTS AVAILABLE.
Very frustrating. We’ve been trying for weeks to gen an appointment, but no luck so far.
Reporter Dremann, thank you very much for including the bar-graph in this story (and the Editor for publishing it). Some of us data-wonk engineer-types have a visual-learning number sense.
Percentages are also interesting – the “county dashboard” also seems to show that Stanford Health Care has ‘pushed out’ (into arms) more shots (in percent) that it has received than any other Santa Clara County organization. How? It seems … that they have administered more First Doses than they have received – ’cause they used some ‘second dose’ allocations to ‘get into arms’. Yeah – I think 90% immunity for as many as possible (and pray for supply of ‘second doses’) is effective public health planning/thinking.
Look at the Co. System numbers – a very large percent (and number) of “doses received” are NOT IN ARMS! Almost 57,000 doses sitting around in Co. of Santa Clara freezers! The Dr. who is the County Executive (and previouly ran a health care system) does not, IMO, seem to be doing an effective job of marshaling his forces! (Supervisor Joe – please Push Him Harder, and your fellow Co. Board of Supervisors)
I had looked for appointments in the last few days without luck, but I was told by a friend that she’d just signed up, and I did too. My appointment is for Mon. 2/8. Appointments are available at this moment.