California will soon expand its list of people eligible for coronavirus vaccination by another 4 million to 6 million people by adding those with severe disabilities and people with health conditions who are at risk for infection and death, Mark said. Health Minister Ghaly said on Friday. .
Among those eligible on March 15 are people with certain cancers, heart, lung and kidney conditions, as well as pregnant women, those with Down syndrome, organ transplants and severe obesity. They join people 65 and older and those with high-risk job descriptions who have already been eligible according to the state plan.
California has been plagued by vaccine shortages and Ghaly could not say how long it will take for the state to vaccinate the estimated 17 to 19 million people who will be eligible for the vaccine once the new additions are made.
“Without the crystal ball on the award, it would be really hard to answer,” he said. The country with the largest population could receive more than 1 million doses every week for at least the next few weeks, ‘Ghaly said.
Each of the current vaccines – Pfizer and Moderna – requires two doses for full effectiveness. So it takes 1 million shots to cover 500,000 people.
Judy Mark, president of Disability Voices United, thanked the state for vaccinating the disabled, but said it should take place immediately.
“The effective date on March 15 may be too late for many people with disabilities who may die of COVID in the meantime,” she said in a statement.
Ghaly said the extra time is needed for the state to increase capacity. Some people with disabilities or certain health conditions will be more difficult to reach because they need to be vaccinated at home, he said.
Government Gavin Newsom said the state recognizes that those with certain physical and intellectual disabilities are ‘uniquely vulnerable’.
“I want the community with disabilities to know, we’ve heard you, and we’re going to do more and better to provide access, even with the scarcity,” he said as he visited a mass vaccination site in San Francisco. has.
California is recovering from its worst stage of the pandemic. New virus cases and hospitalizations have dropped dramatically over the past three weeks, and deaths rising above 3,500 a week have also begun to decline, albeit at a slower pace.
The state began vaccinating vaccines in December as cases and hospitalizations exploded. Officials first focused on vaccinating people based on the level of risk of their jobs. Healthcare workers were the first to turn and the state then added educators, farm workers and emergency service workers. People in long-term care facilities and 65 years and older are also eligible.
Once the state has gone through the groups, it plans to move to an age-based system rather than one based on job description. The state has not yet developed a plan for the age-based criteria.
‘We are working to determine the age period and when the date will take effect. It will mainly be driven by the provision of vaccine, ”Ghaly said.
The state decided to add people with disabilities and health conditions of any age after receiving criticism that they did not protect those at higher risk of infection and death due to COVID-19.
Still, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris, surgeon in California, said doctors would have to judge and not allow everyone to be vaccinated.
“It is very important for providers to give a reasonable recognition of the scarce supply to ensure that those at greatest risk have access to the vaccine,” she said on CGT-TV on Friday.
It’s not going to be easy for doctors, said Dr. Louise Aronson, professor of geriatrics at the University of California, San Francisco.
‘It’s going to be difficult for patients and it’s going to be difficult for clinicians, but the way we get through it is that we all have to prioritize the highest risk and stay patient a little longer, which is one of the most difficult questions. at this moment in history, ”she said.
California has opened many mass vaccination centers in recent weeks, but due to the shortage of vaccines, it is not working nearly as well. The city of Los Angeles temporarily closed vaccination sites at Dodger Stadium and four other locations until supplies could be replenished.
“We are all frustrated. We know we could have done much more if we had available doses,” said Dr. Paul Simon, scientific chief of LA County, said. He said the country can administer about 600,000 doses a week, but it gets about 200,000.
California has administered 5.5 million doses to date, and more than 1 million people have received both.
The state also released data Friday showing the age, race, gender and province of people vaccinated. It only covers health workers, long-term care workers and people 65 and older, which means it is not an accurate reflection of the entire population of California, state officials said.
The incomplete data is just one piece of information that officials rely on as they try to distribute vaccines to the most vulnerable people in California. The state has not released a breakdown of vaccines by zip code, which can be used to measure whether people are vaccinated in disadvantaged neighborhoods, but it does provide a demographic breakdown by country.
The data show that almost a third of the vaccines went to white people, almost 16% to Latinos, more than 13% to Asian Americans and less than 3% to black people. Of the rest, 14% went to people who identified themselves as multiracial, 12% to those named as ‘other’, and the rest to ‘unknown’. The state relies on self-identification or data from health care providers.
__
Associated Press authors Janie Har in San Francisco and Amy Taxin in Orange County contributed.