Due to the reduced and unpredictable supply of vaccines from the state, Santa Clara County has transferred thousands of meetings, county officials said on Wednesday.
Approximately 8,500 appointments for Kaiser Permanente patients scheduled across the county between Thursday and March 21 will be transferred to Kaiser for rescheduling.
The reason for the transfer is that the state “assured” Kaiser that it will have enough vaccine for its members, while the county has not received “any such commitment” for uninsured and vulnerable residents, county officials said.
Despite obtaining an additional allocation of 7,500 Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the county received only 3,000 more doses than it received last week. This is because the county received 1,400 fewer Modern vaccines and 3,510 fewer Pfizer vaccines than it had a week earlier, according to county data.
But this is not because the state has obtained fewer Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. On the contrary, the state received 29,900 more Modern photos and 40,950 more Pfizer photos.
The state has allocated 40% of vaccines to target 400 lower-income zip codes in the state, but no zip codes have been identified in Santa Clara County – which could explain why its allocations have been lower in this state. week Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said at the county supervisory board meeting on Tuesday.
“We are not included in this [400 ZIP codes] so, again, our equity efforts are being jeopardized by insufficient vaccines and the emphasis that the state has everywhere but us, ”Fenstersheib said.
At a news conference last week, supervisor Cindy Chavez said the state must “treat everyone [counties] correctly, “noting the high and disproportionately positive COVID-19 rates in East San Jose and South County.
The county has the capacity to inoculate 12,000 to 15,000 people a day, but supply constraints allow the county to provide 8,000 photos daily, Fenstersheib said.
All transferred persons are Kaiser members under the age of 75, according to the county’s public health department.
The Department of Public Health also mentioned that Kaiser will prioritize the scheduling of vaccine schedules through its system for those patients who are transferred.
“The decision to transfer these patients back to Kaiser for vaccine scheduling was made after a careful analysis of the available options,” the public health department said in a statement. This transfer of appointments will prevent further cancellations of vaccination clinics and appointments.
As of Wednesday, the county did not cancel any appointments due to the vaccine supply, but transferred only the 8,500 Kaiser patients, according to the county’s emergency operations center.
The county claims that its main priority in terms of inoculation is to ensure access to the vaccine for the communities most affected by COVID-19.