The first batches of COVID-19 vaccines were given mainly to health workers, but a large group of community members could begin access next week: people over the age of 65.
Santa Barbara County is following California’s phased vaccine distribution system and is nearing completion of the first priority groups of health care workers, emergency medical workers and staff, and long-term caregivers, such as nursing homes. qualified medical care.
“We anticipate doubling efforts to get our hands on the deck this week so we can complete Phase 1a,” Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso told the Supervisory Board this week.
Residents over the age of 75 are the next eligible group, but the state decided this week to extend this to everyone aged 65 and over.
This is a much larger group and is much earlier than expected by the Department of Public Health, Do-Reynoso said Wednesday’s Noozhawk.
“The age will come before the essential workers (in the allocation of the vaccine), unless you have already registered them and given them appointments,” Do-Reynoso said.
“This is the one that appears in our hospitals and the one that, unfortunately, suffers from very serious to fatal results”
To date, eligible people have been found in a top-down approach through their employers or the facilities in which they live.
For future groups, the county will need to work with health care providers and community groups to let people know they are eligible and tell them how to make vaccination schedules for both doses.
A worker at Lompoc Valley Medical Center has a vial of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19. (Photo by Lompoc Valley Medical Center)
The county intends to provide online registration of appointments, have direct access to eligible people through health care providers and use call centers.
“2-1-1 call centers will be able to register appointments, including people who do not have access to online platforms or who cannot linguistically access them,” she said.
When access opens to all adults, which is expected “sometime this spring,” the county plans to set up mass vaccination clinics and awareness campaigns to spread the word, she said.
There will likely be car sites, walk-up sites and county-only meeting sites and mobile vaccination clinics to serve people who can’t access major locations.
The Department of Public Health is already asking local healthcare system staff to hire these community mass vaccination sites.
“In order to mass vaccinate our county, we cannot be just us; it has to be everyone, ”Do-Reynoso said.
Do-Reynoso stressed that the process of distributing vaccination is dynamic, and policy decisions come from the state and federal governments every day.
The county has a vaccine information site at https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
Vaccine distribution levels and estimated timeline
The county requests and receives an order for vaccines each week and keeps some to vaccinate people through its clinics. It allocates the most doses to a network of vaccine providers: hospitals, community clinics, medical offices and retail pharmacies.
The state and the county use a priority system of phases and levels, because the supply is limited.
(Photo from the Department of Public Health of Santa Barbara County)
It is based on the idea of administering the first vaccinations to people who are likely to be exposed to the virus at work (key workers, including those in healthcare) and to people who are likely to become seriously ill (those who are elderly and people with serious medical conditions).
The idea was to finish one level at a time and move on to the next.
However, that system created blockages because hospitals and clinics were left with extra doses and no people were allowed to give them.
California opened it this week and created a larger group of eligible people, and the county expects faster vaccinations because of it.
“I think because of the rigorous leveling system, we were locked up for a while,” Do-Reynoso said.
California officials said Wednesday that instead of vaccinating residents age 75 and older in the next group, they should be age 65 and older – a much larger group of eligible people.
The direction of use of each dose also leads to situations where some suppliers outperform others.
Lompoc Valley Medical Center announced Wednesday that it will vaccinate some of its patients age 75 and older. The center has already vaccinated all staff members and vendors facing patients and had additional doses to use, Do-Reynoso said.
Do-Reynoso acknowledged that the Department of Public Health did not receive a notification LVMC will announce the move and said it would have been nice to have coordinated it better.
The county has received a lot of phone calls from older adults saying most are not fair to non-Lompoc residents, she said.
“So what we’re saying is that what Lompoc is doing right now could be interpreted as using the best vaccine they’ve been given,” she said. “We do not want it to disappear in the refrigerator or be wasted.
“For those who, unfortunately, are not in the health care network, who are 75 years old, the Department of Public Health will be extended to 75-year-olds as soon as possible next week.”
Healthcare workers facing patients are currently eligible for the vaccine and can register for meetings through the county website here.
“At this time, people who provide direct patient care or work in patient care areas are eligible,” and not people who work from home, according to the county.
(Photo from the Department of Public Health of Santa Barbara County)
Cottage Health hosts a vaccination clinic at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital for eligible health workers who live or work in Santa Barbara County on Friday and Saturday. The website contains more information and a pre-registration form.
Under the current program, people aged 65 and over are expected to be eligible starting next week.
In February and March, this will be extended to people at risk of occupational exposure in areas including:
“Education
»Child care
»Emergency services
»Food / food and agriculture
»Transport and logistics
»Industrial, commercial, residential and housing facilities and services
»Critical manufacturing
»Congregate the arrangement of shelters and detention centers
After that, it is people over the age of 60 and people with underlying health conditions or disabilities who increase their risk of severe COVID-19 if they are infected.
Also, those at risk of occupational exposure in the following sectors:
»Water and wastewater
“Defense
“Energy
»Chemical and hazardous materials
»Communications and IT
“Financial services
»Government operations / essential community-based functions
According to Do-Reynoso, the county expects to open mass vaccination clinics sometime this spring.
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