Stanislaus County awaits more COVID-19 vaccine. Where residents will be able to get shots
Stanislaus County’s public health agency has received 25,225 doses of coronavirus vaccine and discussed plans Tuesday for vaccinating residents.
But that number is just a portion of the vaccinations that will be given out in the county, and keeping track of them will be difficult if not impossible, authorities said.
Major health care providers like Kaiser Permanente and Sutter Health will play major roles in getting vaccines to hundreds of thousands of their patients in the Northern San Joaquin Valley and their vaccinations won’t be included in the county total.
Walgreens and CVS pharmacies are working on vaccinating staff and residents in nursing homes and assisted living centers. Those shots are not included in the county total either. Pharmacies have also said they will get in the act of immunizing customers once the vaccines are available.
Federal, state and local agencies still face a huge challenge in getting the COVID-19 vaccine to millions of workers in essential industries, to seniors, low-income residents, people in neighborhoods stricken by the pandemic and other folks who just want protection against the dangerous respiratory illness.
Dr. Mark Ghaly, California health and human services director, said Tuesday there is a limited amount of vaccine in California and little vaccine is coming into the state. Federal officials held a conversation Tuesday morning on vaccine distribution and the possibility of loosening some restrictions on who gets the vaccine first.
In a presentation to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday, county health officials said what’s needed for this county is more vaccine and more qualified vaccinators to administer the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna shots that are available.
County officials spent much of the presentation trying to explain the complexities of the state and national vaccination campaign and defending the county against criticism.
“We have minimal control over how much vaccine flows to Stanislaus County and we can only control what we control,” Chief Executive Officer Jody Hayes said.
Some elements of a county vaccination effort did emerge.
The county plans to have vaccination hubs in Modesto, Turlock, the eastern part of the county and western portion. It needs to train more people from medical professionals to emergency medical technicians to administer shots.
Hayes said the county wants to have numerous vaccination points throughout the county; perhaps neighborhoods would have a trusted community organization or pharmacy for giving the shots.
Of the 25,000 doses allotted to the county Health Services Agency thus far, about 18,000 doses have been administered to people in priority groups established by the state such as community health and in-home care workers. The county has about 7,300 doses on hand for sheriff’s deputies and other groups with priority status. No doses have been wasted, Public Health Officer Dr. Julie Vaishampayan said.
Sutter Health said Monday it has the capability of starting to vaccinate its patients who are age 75 and older. Sutter patients in that age group will receive instructions for the next steps on their online patient portal, a Sutter spokeswoman said.
The state delivers vaccines to some, but not all, private health care organizations that have hospitals and medical offices in multiple counties. People should keep an eye on emails and messages from their health care providers to see when vaccine is available for them. It’s estimated that vaccines for the general public will be available in March or April.
In other takeaways from Tuesday’s county presentation:
- Officials said 149 of 156 long-term care facilities in the county have signed up for the program to vaccinate residents and staff.
- County health services has 150 employees who are eligible to administer the vaccines. Some local physicians have shied away from getting involved because of regulations.
- Local hospitalizations for COVID-19 have stabilized this month, ranging from 315 to 340 in the past two weeks. Coronavirus admissions in intensive care beds was at an all-time high of 81 on Monday.
- The county has recorded 686 coronavirus deaths, with just over 60 coming in one week in December.
Essential workers need the vaccine
People in essential industries say they’re not getting much information on how or when employees who have daily contact with the public will have access to vaccine.
“What we are seeing is the rollout has not been that smooth,” said Bill O’Brien, a former county supervisor whose family owns O’Brien’s Market, a local chain of grocery stores.
O’Brien said people in the supermarket industry have not been told how employees will be vaccinated and no one seems to know. Thousands of employees serving customers in supermarkets and retail stores have been at risk of contracting the virus for months, with masks or Plexiglass shields as their main form of protection.
“There are a ton of essential workers out there. People in my industry face it every day. I want to get people vaccinated as fast as we can,” O’Brien said.
The vaccine “is doing no good sitting in the freezer. Let’s get it in our arms and maybe we will see some of these numbers go down,” O’Brien said.
The vaccinations are a matter of choice. According to a Pew Research Center study released in early December, the percentage of Americans who intend to get a COVID-19 vaccination has risen to 60 percent.
Shots offered to frontline deputies
The Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Office is asking frontline deputies if they want a vaccination against COVID-19. Patrol deputies, other frontline staff and custodial deputies are eligible for vaccinations under the state’s priority system.
Sgt. Tom Letras, a spokesman for the department, said Monday he’s heard some deputies say they will decline the vaccination.
The department sent a message to eligible deputies offering the vaccine and providing information about it. Letras said the department will know by Friday how many have accepted the offer.
The county Health Services Agency will administer the shots.
Letras said he’s personally not interested in getting the vaccination right now. “My personal position is we have a vaccine that was rolled out so quickly,” Letras said, adding he’s not that concerned about the illness.
The sergeant said he knows quite a few friends and family members who have come down with COVID-19. Some like his 19-year-old daughter had cold-like symptoms and soon got over it.
Letras said he does have friends who were healthy and battled COVID-related pneumonia.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 2:18 PM.
