Vaccine updates: Where California stands on doses leading up to eligibility expansion
California’s major expansion to make all residents 16 and older eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine by mid-April comes as the state and rest of the U.S. expect a windfall of doses starting that month.
All California residents ages 50 and older will become eligible beginning April 1, and all ages 16 and up will become eligible April 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday morning.
Newsom in a news conference said the state is expecting to receive about 2.5 million doses a week before the end of April and around 3 million a week by May and June, as nationwide supply ramps up.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday that California next week will receive its biggest allocation yet — about 2.11 million doses from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — including 1.25 million designated as first doses.
CDPH reported Thursday providers have given 15,979,099 total doses to date, an increase by 441,354 from Wednesday.
According to the CDC, about 10.8 million Californians — 27% of the state’s population and 35% of its adults — have received at least one dose; and close to 5.5 million — 14% of Californians and 18% of California adults — are now fully vaccinated.
Providers nationwide received fewer doses of the J&J single-dose vaccine than expected in March due to a manufacturing issue, and are now expecting many more J&J doses in April as the issue is resolved.
How many are fully, partially vaccinated in Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Wednesday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 561,513 (35,811 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 75,951 (39,333 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 183,506 (45,827 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 97,950 (43,804 doses per 100,000)
Here is what percentage of each county’s population is fully and partially vaccinated, according to CDPH data.
▪ Sacramento: 12.5% fully vaccinated, 23.8% at least partially vaccinated
▪ El Dorado: 14.4% fully vaccinated, 25.8% at least partially vaccinated
▪ Placer: 17.2% fully vaccinated, 29.1% at least partially vaccinated
▪ Yolo: 15.4% fully vaccinated, 29.1% at least partially vaccinated
Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.
Northern California VA locations giving vaccines
Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care is now offering COVID-19 vaccination to veterans at 11 clinic locations: Auburn, Chico, Fairfield, Mare Island, Martinez, Mather, McClellan, Oakland, Redding, Yreka and Yuba City.
Enrolled veterans are eligible regardless of age.
Veterans can book appointments online using the My HealtheVet portal; or by calling 800-382-8387 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. weekdays.
More details are available at northerncalifornia.va.gov.
Sacramento-area health offices, public clinics and pharmacies
Most county health offices are splitting their direct allocations between their own county-run clinics, non-chain hospitals and other partners, including some Safeway pharmacies.
CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens offer vaccine appointments at some of their pharmacies across California, including some in Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties, as part of a federal retail pharmacy partnership.
Rite Aid announced earlier in March that it was expanding eligibility and prioritizing scheduling for teachers, school staff and child care workers in California. The pharmacy chain on Thursday announced that it was extended this expanded priority for teachers through the rest of March.
CVS said earlier this month it would be offering shots at 119 more of its pharmacies. That’s in addition to the 167 locations already offering the vaccine in California, as well as 600 Target stores nationwide where CVS has a pharmacy.
Sacramento
Health officer Kasirye said Thursday that Sacramento County has signed a memorandum of understanding with the state that will have insurance company Blue Shield take over vaccine administration. Kasirye said the transition is still a few weeks away.
The Cal Expo site is being transitioned to a new administrator called Curative in April, so first-dose appointment bookings have been paused there while second doses continue. Doses that would normally have been given there are being transferred to other clinics.
The county opened a new walk-thru clinic, at the county education office’s Mather conference center. It offered about 200 first doses of the Pfizer vaccine Thursday and has 300 shots planned Friday for educators plus residents 65 and older.
Sacramento County has expanded eligibility to farm workers, restaurant employees and janitors as it advances within Phase 1B of the rollout. It is also making a major push to vaccinate homeless who live under local freeways.
The county has opened a drive-thru clinic at Bayside Church in midtown on 19th Street, operated by Safeway. That clinic is offering the J&J single-dose vaccine this Wednesday and Thursday, by appointment only.
Sacramento County continues to offer drive-thru vaccine clinics at McClellan Park and Natomas High School; and walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove and at Sacramento State.
All clinics require appointments in advance. Scheduling and booking information can be found at dhs.saccounty.net.
Sacramento also has CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores participating in the federal partnership program, and the county is also partnered with 11 Safeway pharmacies.
The McClellan Park, Sacramento State and Northstate clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses. Cal Expo and Safeway pharmacies offer Moderna, a four-week wait.
El Dorado
El Dorado runs clinics for eligible groups at its public health offices in Placerville and South Lake Tahoe. The county on Thursday announced dates for the South Lake Tahoe clinic: it will give shots every Monday, Thursday and Friday now through the end of April, with the exception of Monday, April 19. Appointments are available through CalVax, at calvax.org.
The county also offers clinics for El Dorado residents ages 65 and older in the parking structure at Red Hawk Casino in Placerville on Thursdays, also available through CalVax. It will run each Thursday through at least April 22.
The Red Hawk clinic gives Pfizer shots. The South Lake Tahoe clinic uses Moderna.
Walgreens in Cameron Park and the CVS store on Palmer Drive in Cameron Park are also now offering Moderna vaccine appointments as part of the federal retail pharmacy partnership.
The county is also partnered with six Safeway stores.
More detailed information on county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville. The county website says all clinics for this week are fully booked.
Appointment links are posted as they become available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
The Grounds clinic is open for Placer County residents ages 65 and older, ages 16 through 64 with qualifying medical conditions and essential workers in Phase 1A or 1B who are employed in Placer County.
Placer is also partnered with eight Safeway pharmacies throughout the county.
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin. There may also be availability at Rite Aid and Walgreens stores; users should check with individual stores for eligibility, the county says.
Appointments can also been made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
Yolo
Yolo County’s vaccination website county-run clinics this week are reserved for agriculture and education workers. “All, if not most” of this week’s 4,000 allocated doses are going toward second-dose clinics, the county says on its website.
Yolo as of midday Thursday had not announced clinic dates for next week.
More details regarding county-run clinics are available on the county website at yolocounty.org.
Hospital systems
Hospital systems operating in multiple counties receive their own allocations from the state.
Sutter Health announced last week that it is resuming the booking of first-dose appointments in the valley area — its large clinics in Sacramento, Roseville, Modesto, Stockton and Tracy — after it had suspended new appointments for about a month, and is booking appointments “as supply allows.”
Sutter says on its patient website it has administered more than 425,000 doses to date.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients in all groups eligible in phases 1A and 1B. Kaiser Permanente says on its website it is offering vaccines to Kaiser members as well as non-members.
In an update last week, Kaiser Permanente said it had administered nearly 950,000 of the 1.2 million doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 380,000 future appointments scheduled.
UC Davis Health is vaccinating patients in all eligible groups as defined by CDPH.
UC Davis Health is using the state’s My Turn website to schedule vaccination appointments.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has also begun using My Turn to schedule appointments, and is working with the state and other partners to offer vaccines to eligible Californians.
This story was originally published March 25, 2021 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Vaccine updates: Where California stands on doses leading up to eligibility expansion."
