Santa Clara County is stepping up vaccinations in an attempt to complete their supply to health workers before moving on to the next group.
So far, the launch has been slow in the Bay Area and in the country, but the next phase is expected to go much faster.
Kevin Dizon is now among the more than 47,000 health care workers in Santa Clara County to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine meeting card, along with his first vaccine.
“I didn’t really think I would be able to get it, I thought I would be on a later level and then they added the dental field,” Dizon said.
The state has extended Phase 1A eligibility to include all types of health care workers, such as Dizon, who is a dental hygienist.
But so far, only about a third of the country’s health workers have been shot.
Vaccinations will not be extended to the next group until the completion of this group, which should be in a few weeks.
Bay Area medical organizations are already sending messages to members, including a mass e-mail from Sutter Health.
According to the message, group 1B, which includes patients aged 65 to 74 and teachers, will soon be able to book vaccine programming online.
Santa Clara County Public Health plans to open a second vaccination center, which could expand capacity to 6,000 photos a day.
Private groups such as Walgreens and CVS are added to this capability.
“We are talking about several, such as private hospitals, such as the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Kaiser, which also administers its vaccines separately,” said Otto Lee, Santa Clara County Supervisor.
But the expanded capacity depends on the availability of vaccines.
Vaccines come in waves, said Dr. Jennifer Tong of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center. “We get an amount of 50 to 100,000 at a time and one of our key factors in being able to expand capacity further is whether or not we will have enough vaccine.”