Santa Clara County’s public health system is about to vaccinate 30,000 people a week, officials said Friday.
Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has established five vaccination sites, including mass vaccination sites at Berger Drive and Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
The Berger location has the capacity to vaccinate 1,300 people, and the Fair Center can vaccinate 1,800 people in one day.
Next week, another vaccination site will open in Mountain View, and the county plans to open a third mass vaccination site with a larger capacity than the fair, said Dr. Jennifer Tong, associate medical officer in Santa Clara. Valley Medical Center.
“Our system alone has vaccinated more than 3,000 people this month, more than 4,000 each week on Tuesday and Wednesday each, more than 5,000 yesterday, and we have more than 6,000 meetings scheduled today,” Tong said. “So we’re going up very fast.”
The county health system alone administered 32,352 first doses and 6,594 secondary doses to eligible medical workers and people aged 75 and over in the county since Thursday.
But the biggest constraint on vaccinating more people is providing vaccines.
“We really need a stable and predictable supply so that we can predict our capacity and expand our capacity in the future,” Tong said.
County Attorney James Williams said the federal government is to blame, changing federal and state guidelines on a daily basis and subsequently a lot of misinformation.
“I found out a few days ago, for example, that the federal government was going to release vaccine stocks that were being held for the second dose,” Williams said. “I found out this morning that there are no such stocks.”
The other big problem is that the distribution of the vaccine is fragmented, without a real plan organized in the county, Williams said.
Large multi-county health care systems, such as Kaiser Permanente, receive vaccine allocations from the state – which Williams said is “the essence of the challenge” because the majority of the population is provided by these large health systems.
Federal agencies also govern the distribution of vaccines and a federal program with Walgreens and CVS leads the distribution of vaccines to residents and staff in long-term care facilities.
A public health order from January 7 aims to mediate this problem, asking hospitals, clinics and all vaccine administrators to share information with the county and submit a vaccination plan by February 1.
But the health order can do so much because federal programs and agencies are not required to share information with the county, Williams said.
However, county officials, such as supervisor Otto Lee, are hopeful with a new administration, vaccination will be better.
“New President-elect Biden has talked about 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office,” Lee said. “And we will hold him accountable to make sure this happens.”
Meanwhile, as the county is facing the largest increase to date, officials are urging residents to follow health orders, stay home as long as possible and avoid rallies.
“We are now finally feeling the impact of Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings,” Lee said. “This number will not decrease unless we work so hard together to stay socially distant, to wear masks, and if it is not absolutely necessary, please do not go out and gather.”
For more information on vaccination in Santa Clara County, visit sccfreevax.org.