One city in Stanislaus County excels in COVID vaccinations. How the others stack up
In one of the cities in Stanislaus County, about two-thirds of the eligible residents are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Patterson stands head and shoulders above the other eight cities with its full vaccination rate of 65 percent among residents eligible for the COVID vaccine (those age 12 and older), according to data released by county public health Tuesday.
No other cities in the county have cracked the 60 percent level, and three cities — Oakdale, Hughson and Waterford — are below 50 percent, making it easier for the potentially deadly respiratory disease to spread.
While posting a vaccination rate of 54 percent among the eligible population, Stanislaus County had the fourth highest COVID-19 death rate among counties in California, as of Sept. 20, according to the Stacker.com data news service.
The full vaccination rate in Modesto is 57 percent. It is 56.4 percent in Newman, 55.4 percent in Riverbank, 54.8 percent in Ceres, 53.4 percent in Turlock, 49.5 percent in Oakdale, 45.7 percent in Hughson and 42 percent in Waterford.
Karin Hennings, chief executive officer for Del Puerto Health Care District, said she was amazed that Patterson is leading the county in vaccinations against COVID-19.
But she did see a lot of eagerness from people who lined up for vaccinations at the public clinics held this year at the Hammon Senior Center. The health care district jointly ran the vaccine clinic with the county, city of Patterson, and the Patterson Unified School District.
Del Puerto also offered the shots at its health clinic and the Patterson Family Pharmacy had a drive-up service. In addition, some local employers encouraged their workers to get vaccinated as soon as they were eligible, Hennings said.
The local vaccination campaign reached a saturation point and the public clinic in Patterson stopped getting a big response toward the end of May, Hennings said. The downtick also happened at other large vaccine clinics held by the county in Modesto, Turlock and Oakdale.
Patterson has a substantial commuter population with ties to Bay Area counties, which have the highest rates of COVID vaccination in California. Hennings speculated that those commuters may share the same attitudes toward the vaccine.
Hennings pointed out the Moderna vaccine was usually offered to Patterson residents. That could mean a longer wait for those people eligible for a booster dose, except for those who are immunocompromised. While the Pfizer booster was given the green light for people 65 and older and other eligible groups last week, federal agencies have made no decision on boosters for Moderna or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Less transmission than other cities
Patterson, with 23,304 residents, has recently seen less COVID-19 transmission than other similar-size cities with lower vaccine coverage. County data shows 242 confirmed cases in Patterson in the past 30 days or 10.4 cases per 1,000 population. Riverbank, with 25,169 residents, had 366 COVID cases in the past month or 14.54 cases per 1,000.
Oakdale, with 23,237 population, had 251 confirmed cases over the same period or 10.8 per 1,000.
Modesto (with 219,294 population) added 2,827 cases in the past month or 12.9 per 1,000 residents, an infectious disease rate that’s 25 percent higher than Patterson’s.
County health officials continued to report a slowdown in the COVID delta surge, which has caused 171 deaths since the week of July 25.
COVID hospitalizations in Stanislaus County stood at 175 on Tuesday, down from 256 two weeks ago, with 51 patients in intensive care. The county’s daily case rate was 31.9 per 100,000 compared to well above 50 per 100,000 in early September. The rate needs to drop to 20 per 100,000 for the county to lift a health order requiring masks in indoor public settings regardless of vaccination status.
Hospital officials have said the county’s low vaccination rate of 54 percent among eligible residents (age 12 and over) could spell trouble this upcoming winter when the latest COVID variant circulates along with seasonal influenza.
Fewer COVID deaths in Bay Area counties
Santa Clara County, which has more than three times the population of Stanislaus County, recorded half as many deaths from the delta wave. Santa Clara has almost 1.44 million residents completely vaccinated or 83.7 percent of eligible residents, resulting in an overall case rate of 11.2 per 100,000 this week.
Santa Clara has recorded 78 deaths since late July. Stanislaus, with as many 38 deaths in a single week, has totaled 171 COVID deaths in the same period.
Alameda County, where 77.7 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, has reported 51 deaths since July 20. The county of 1.66 million people has fewer COVID patients in the hospital this week (139) than Stanislaus and has plenty of intensive care beds available.
In Contra Costa County, with a full vaccination rate of 81.2 percent among the eligible, the infection rate is 24.6 per 100,000 among those who are not vaccinated and 1.7 per 100,000 among the fully vaccinated.
In Stanislaus County, 85 percent of the COVID hospitalizations and 93 percent of deaths are people not fully vaccinated, the county says.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 7:14 AM with the headline "One city in Stanislaus County excels in COVID vaccinations. How the others stack up."
