Farmers, food, education, childcare and emergency workers will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next week. They join a list that already consists of health workers, long-term care residents and people aged 65 and over, as local vaccination efforts continue to expand.
In addition, the distribution of the vaccine in Kern County is being taken over by the state of California, changing the procedures that have been in place for the past few weeks.
Starting Monday, individuals wishing to use the Kern County Fairgrounds mass vaccination site will need to visit myturn.ca.gov or call a state call center at 833-422-4255. Previously, public health services in Kern County handled vaccine meetings in the center of the fair using a local call center.
At a news conference Friday, Kern County officials described the move as part of a general plan that will eventually include all California vaccine distributors. Kern County is part of the first wave of counties to be added to the MyTurn system. While only the fairs will be included in the system until next week, explained Kern’s director of public health services, Brynn Carrigan, soon appointments for all vaccines in the county will go through the website.
“Eventually, all of our vaccination providers will be on MyTurn and it will be a one-stop shop for residents to go and find out where appointments are available and who is eligible,” she said. “Not all of our providers will be on MyTurn next week, however this should happen very soon.”
The county intends to call people who received the first dose of vaccine at the trade fair between February 3 and Saturday to schedule the second dose. Those who do not receive a call within one week of the due date of the second dose should call 321-3000.
With the change of platform, there has been some confusion as to whether or not people in the extended eligibility categories will be able to register for meetings. Public health services warned on Friday that MyTurn had not yet allowed the extended group of workers to sign up, county officials hoping to see soon.
The distribution of vaccines was watched with interest by the inhabitants of Kern County, hoping that life will return to normal relatively soon. But the supply was hampered by a slow launch, which left many of those eligible to receive the vaccine unable to sign up for appointments.
To date, Kern County has received 96,600 doses of vaccine, with 93,097 given to residents since Friday morning. Carrigan said the number was underestimated because the doses administered by the county health department have not yet been reflected in state data.
“Kern is ready, with an outpouring of community providers begging for vaccine allocation, to vaccinate our community,” she said, noting that the county was able to provide 45,000 shots each week, but could not, as it received a limited amount of vaccine from the state.
Kern County now receives 1.6 percent of the state’s vaccine allocation, a figure that is set to rise to 2.9 percent next week. However, at the current rate, it would take 11 weeks to vaccinate only those aged 65 and over.
“We understand that there is a demand from our public for this vaccine,” Chief Executive Officer Ryan Alsop said during the news conference. “We understand that many of you want to be vaccinated right now. We did everything we could to do this with the limited reserves we gave ourselves. ”
He encouraged residents of Kern County to “stay there” as the county works to increase its vaccine allocation.
But the trouble continued even as more and more doses were given. About 6,000 doses that the county was to receive last week were withheld due to extreme weather in different parts of the country, causing delays and cancellations of appointments.
You can reach Sam Morgen at 661-395-7415. You can also follow him on Twitter @smorgenTBC.