The only private health care provider in Santa Clara County that vaccinated people under the age of 74 has changed course.
After Kaiser Permanent vaccinated people aged 65 and over, she changed the age from COVID-19 age to patients aged 75 and older – despite California getting vaccinated at age 65. The change aligns Kaiser with the province’s mandate to vaccinate people aged 75 and over due to a shortage of vaccination.
“This relates to the provision of vaccines and strip with the California Department of Public Health,” Kaiser officials said in a statement to San José Spotlight.
The move also joins Kaiser with all other health care providers in the country who have vaccinated people aged 75 and older. Kaiser was the only healthcare provider in the country that met different criteria.
“It was extremely challenging at the local level to meet the expectations as the leadership around us changed,” said Dr. Sara Cody, public health officer for Santa Clara County, said at a January 19 meeting.
Hospitals in Santa Clara County received just under 30,000 vaccines from the state this week, Cody said. Officials have warned that the shortage of vaccines makes it difficult to vaccinate all eligible health workers, let alone the elderly. Land supervisors draw up a letter to the state asking them to give more doses.
Kaiser tried to follow the state’s direction – but did not have enough doses to continue.
“With the expansion at the state level, Kaiser is falling in line, but of course our local Kaiser did not have the vaccine to vaccinate the population and it created a lot of frustration,” Cody said.
Cody and other health officials stressed that continued vaccine supply from the state and federal governments is unpredictable and unreliable. The state provides vaccines to the country and some private health care providers, such as Kaiser and Palo Alto Medical Foundation, while the federal government sends vaccines directly to CVS and Walgreens for long-term care and veterans programs.
“At the moment, there are relatively similar criteria between Sutter (Health), Kaiser and our province,” said supervisor Joe Simitian. “But there is no guarantee that this will be the case in a week or two?”
The confirmation of the vaccine confirmed by Cody is extremely limited and varies according to supplier.
Earlier this month, Santa Clara County revealed that he had administered just under half of the vaccines.
Santa Clara County released a dashboard this week, with real-time numbers of how many vaccines have been administered and administered to each hospital, and how many vaccine appointments are planned over the next seven days.
According to the dashboard, there are 5,400 vaccinations for Kaiser planned next Wednesday.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese