More people taking COVID tests in Stanislaus County. With FDA approval, are shots next?

Now that the FDA granted full approval of the coronavirus Pfizer vaccine, will it instill confidence for more unvaccinated people in Stanislaus County to get the shots?

County health officials did not release any special plans Monday for offering the fully approved vaccine to those who have sat on the fence, waiting for more evidence the vaccines are safe and effective.

Monday, the public health locations that were visibly attracting residents were testing sites, as the delta variant of COVID-19 continued to make people sick.

The drive-through testing site at California State University, Stanislaus, in Turlock was busy Monday morning, with dozens of cars lined up for the free tests. Across town at the appointment-only site run by LHI, no crowd was visible. However, online appointments, which had been available immediately, were booked throughout the day.

The testing site at Vintage Faire Mall also has been packed with cars on recent days.

The delta coronavirus surge has shown signs of either getting better or getting worse in the past week.

Monday, the county Health Services Agency reported 698 new cases and one additional death, but the case number on Monday is usually higher because it includes prior cases from over the weekend. The new case rate, an important measure of community transmission, was 40.34 per 100,000, down from 41.79 on Saturday.

A county dashboard has a line graph showing the case rate grew from 20.9 on Aug. 3 to 34.4 Aug. 15 before the curve flattened out in the last week.

Test positivity was 13 percent Monday, down from 13.35 percent Saturday, but the county is seeing a larger amount of testing, which is usually sought by people with symptoms or recent exposure to the virus. There were 3,500 total tests reported in Monday’s update after daily tests were running between 2,400 and 2,700 last week.

On Friday, county public health disclosed that about 50 children per day were testing positive this month in Stanislaus County. The statistic comes from a daily average of 45 children, age 14 and under, testing positive Aug. 5-11. The 315 total cases in one week came after the county recorded 352 cases in children and adolescents the entire month of July.

School district reports increase in cases

Turlock Unified School District reported it had 60 confirmed cases of COVID-19 at schools since the start of fall semester Aug. 11. More than 500 close contacts with infected individuals were identified.

A total of 51 students and nine staff members tested positive at Turlock Unified schools.

The school district’s dashboard reported 34 cases in elementary schools, including 27 students and seven staff members. Six students tested positive at Dutcher Middle School and Turlock Junior High. In addition, 17 students and two staff members were infected at Pitman and Turlock high schools.

Turlock Unified said in a social media post that county public health has amended the requirements for notifying students and staff about “extended contacts” with those infected. A person might be in the same location as an infected person but is considered an extended contact if they were there less than 15 minutes and were not closer than 6 feet.

Turlock parents can access a graphic on school websites to see the location of positive cases.

Cases of infected schoolchildren or campus employees may not appear right away on COVID-19 dashboards maintained by school districts. As of Monday, Modesto City Schools had reported 27 cases among students and seven staff members testing positive on its dashboard, which was last updated Aug. 13.

The county’s neighborhood dashboard showed Modesto, with 565, has the most coronavirus cases in the past 30 days. Turlock was next with 126 confirmed cases, which could go up, followed by Ceres with 101. The fineprint on the site says the numbers do not necessarily reflect current active cases.

According to a state online dashboard, there were 269 patients struggling with COVID-19 in the five acute care hospitals in Stanislaus County and a few local facilities that accept COVID patients from them. The county dashboard did not have an updated hospital patient count.

Will approval for Pfizer make a difference?

The FDA’s formal approval of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine raised hopes that Stanislaus could improve vaccination coverage among residents who have delayed getting the shots.

Slightly more than 60 percent of county residents age 12 and over, who are eligible for vaccine, are at least partly vaccinated. Just over half of the 18 to 49 age group, which is hard hit by the delta variant, have at least partial vaccine coverage.

Most of those posting Facebook comments in reaction to a Bee article, which explained the approval process, had not converted to the other side.

“Until long-term studies have been done, and the side effects are known, I still will not be getting the vaccine,” an Oakdale resident wrote. “I don’t go out much and I wear a mask when needed.”

A Manteca resident wrote that a cousin had a reaction to the Pfizer vaccine.

Another reader commented: “It does not matter what you report. The anti-vaxxers will keep moving the goal post.”

Maria Blanco, a county staff member and spokesperson, said the county Health Services Agency is working on getting the message to county residents who have delayed getting the vaccine shots. Blanco said the current vaccination clinics, drugstores and primary care providers can accommodate the potential increased demand in vaccinations.

The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine after the drug manufacturer submitted six months of data on the vaccine’s effectiveness. The FDA reviewed data from 40,000 people in a clinical trial, concluding the vaccine is 91 percent effective in preventing people from developing COVID-19.

The FDA approval is for administering the Pfizer vaccine to anyone 16 or older. Young people age 12 to 15 can still receive the vaccine under the emergency use authorization.

Pfizer announced a new name for the vaccine — “Comirnaty”. It combines the COVID immunity and mRNA type of vaccine in the name, but providers should know what you mean if you say “Pfizer”.

The county operates a Public Health Immunization clinic from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Friday at 401 Paradise Road, Suite E, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The three vaccines authorized for use are available at the clinic.

Other county vaccine clinics, offering the two-step Pfizer and one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccines, are set for Turlock High School, 1600 E. Canal Drive, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday; Riverbank Community Center, 3600 Santa Fe St., from 3 to 5 p.m. Wednesday; and St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday.

Saturday, vaccine clinics will be held at Modesto Library, 1500 I St., from 10 a.m. to noon and Stanislaus Asian American Community Resource, 601 S. Martin Luther King Drive, from 10 a.m to 3 p.m.

All of the clinics are walk-in or by appointment.

Stanislaus County Health Services Agency has additional information about vaccine providers, appointments and testing at www.schsa.org.

This story was originally published August 24, 2021 at 6:43 AM.