Santa Clara County’s public health system is on track to vaccinate 30,000 residents a week, officials said Friday.
The Santa Clara Valley Medical Center has established five vaccination centers, including massive vaccination sites at Berger Drive and Santa Clara County Fairgrounds.
In Berger, 1300 people can be vaccinated and the fair can vaccinate 1800 people a day.
Next week, another vaccination site will be opened in Mountain View, and the province plans to open a third mass vaccination site with more capacity than the fair, Dr. Jennifer Tong, chief medical officer of Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said.
“Our system alone vaccinated more than 3,000 individuals this Monday, more than 4,000 this week on Tuesday and Wednesday each, more than 5,000 yesterday, and we have more than 6,000 appointments today,” Tong said. “So we’re rushing up fast.”
The County Health System alone administered 32,352 first doses and 6,594 second doses to qualified health care workers and individuals 75 years and older in the country as of Thursday.
But the biggest limitation to vaccinating more people is the provision of vaccines.
“We really need a stable and predictable supply to be able to predict our capacity and expand our capacity in the future,” Tong said.
County Williams, James Williams, said the fault lies with the federal government, which changes federal and state guidelines daily and subsequently misrepresents.
“For example, we heard a few days ago that the federal government was going to release the vaccine being held for a second dose,” Williams said. “We learned this morning that no such stock exists.”
The other big problem is that the distribution of vaccines is fragmented, without there being an actual organized plan in the country, Williams said.
Large healthcare systems such as Kaiser Permanente, which occur in several provinces, get their vaccines from the state – which, according to Williams, is the ‘core of the challenge’, because the majority of the population is insured by the large healthcare systems.
Federal agencies also regulate themselves in the distribution of vaccines, and a federal program with Walgreens and CVS provides for the distribution of vaccines to residents and staff at long-term care facilities.
A public health order on Jan. 7 seeks to mediate the problem by requiring hospitals, clinics and all vaccine administrators to share information with the country and submit a vaccination plan by Feb. 1.
But the health order can do just as much because federal programs and agencies do not have to share information with the country, Williams said.
However, land officials like Superintendent Otto Lee are hopeful with a new administration, and vaccination will be better.
“The new president, Biden, talked about 100 million vaccines in the first 100 days in office,” Lee said. “And we will hold him accountable for making it happen.”
Meanwhile, while the province is still facing its biggest boom, officials are urging residents to follow health orders, stay home as much as possible and avoid gatherings.
“We are now finally feeling the impact of Thanksgiving and Christmas gatherings,” Lee said. “This number is not going to drop unless we all work so hard to stay socially at a distance, wear masks, and do not go out to get together unless absolutely necessary.”
Visit sccfreevax.org for more information on vaccination in Santa Clara County.