In an effort to prevent wastage of the COVID-19 vaccine and to speed up the explosion of the vaccine, the state is instructing local health departments and providers to extend the priority of vaccines to community health workers, public health staff, primary care clinics, specialist clinics, laboratory workers, dental clinics and pharmacy staff.
The state also told officials that if there is a surplus, even if those eligible to receive the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccine under extended criteria are granted access, they should go to Tier 1 of the following phase of distribution, which is not yet over. officially entered into force.
The group includes individuals working in education, child care, emergency services and agriculture, as well as 75-year-olds.
The announcement comes amid a slower-than-expected vaccination across the state. The slowdown has been blamed on a variety of issues, including the fact that some frontline employees have turned down the vaccine and that the state does not have a regimental plan regarding remaining doses.
Government Gavin Newsom said on Monday that distribution rules would be facilitated to prevent vaccine from going to waste.
“We want to see 100% of the reception immediately applied into people’s arms, and that’s a challenge,” he said during a briefing. ‘It’s a challenge across the country – it’s a challenge in the rest of the world. But that’s not an excuse. ”
Last month, the state health department issued guidelines saying that vaccine doses can be offered to people in lower priority groups when demand eases and the doses will expire soon.
“Health departments can temporarily adjust prioritization based on other resource constraints while continuing efforts to immunize higher-priority groups as soon as possible,” the guidelines read.
To date, a a total of 586,379 vaccine doses administered throughout the state. A total of 2,052,025 doses, which includes the first and second doses, has been sent to local health departments and facilities, CDPH said.