‘THE RIGHT DIRECTION’
First COVID-19 vaccinations take place at Enloe Medical Center; ‘a light at the end of the tunnel’
CHICO » A shipment carrying 5,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Enloe Medical Center on Thursday. Dr. James Moore and Lydia Banks became the first two people in Butte County to get vaccinated.
“I’m so amazed at science. I mean, the fact that we can come up with a vaccine for this so quickly is amazing. It’s a testament to where we are in the world these days. The fact that I’m sitting here getting it is honestly unreal,” Moore said. “It really feels like we’re finally doing something in the right direction here.”
He noted that hospitalizations have doubled over the last two weeks. Banks hasn’t been able to see her mother because she’s susceptible to the coronavirus.
“I work so closely with (COVID) patients and didn’t want to put her at risk, so this is really important to me,” she said.
A plan for vaccinations
Dr. Marcia Nelson said the hospital will vaccinate employees 16 hours a day, starting with the ones who work directly with COVID-19 patients.
Enloe Medical Center received doses of the vaccine after it applied for and was approved for an allocation from the California Department of Public Health. Butte County was allocated approximately 10,000 doses between Pfizer and Moderna, with approximately half going to Enloe.
Butte County Public Health Director Danette York noted in a press conference Thursday morning that the county’s two other acute care hospitals — Oroville Hospital and Orchard Hospital in Gridley — have submitted applications to become COVID-19 vaccine providers. Their applications are still “under review” by the state, though York said they expect them to be approved soon.
“It’s important to note that the only reason Enloe is receiving vaccines before the other two hospitals is because when the state opened the process up to receive applications, Enloe submitted their application right away,” York said. “It was submitted a few days, or even a week sooner than Oroville or Orchard Hospital was. So, it is not a preference, or preferential treatment for Enloe to receive the vaccine earlier; it’s just the matter of timing …”
The arrival of vaccines in Butte County on Thursday marked a sign of promise more than nine months into the pandemic, with Butte County Public Health officials saying there appears to “be a light at the end of the tunnel.” But officials cautioned that most of the general public still has months to go before a vaccine will reach them. Until then, adhering to already-established health guidelines will be important in curbing the spread of the virus, especially as active cases and hospitalizations continue to climb.
“The knowledge that the vaccine is arriving is great news — we are so excited,” York said. “But, we’re still a ways out from all who want the vaccine being able to receive it.”
“My ask to everyone is to please wait and let us contact you (health care providers) — you will hear from one of our staff members — rather than reaching out to us. That will be a huge help in relieving some of our workload.”
— Danette York, Butte County Public Health director
Vaccine inqueries abound
Front-line health care workers most at risk of contracting the virus are the first recipients of the vaccine under the CDPH’s Phase 1A of distribution. York said this phase is the “only level we have all of our information for,” while the phases to follow “are still being developed.” The vaccine is not currently available for other health care workers or members of the general public.
York said Butte County Public Health has received an influx of calls from additional health
care providers about when they can receive the vaccine. York said it will be determined by the stateoutlined phases. When a provider is identified as eligible to receive the vaccine, Butte County Public Health will contact that agency directly to begin the registration process.
“My ask to everyone is to please wait and let us contact you — you will hear from one of our staff members — rather than reaching out to us,” York said. “That will be a huge help in relieving some of our workload.”
Contact tracing, case numbers
Also during Thursday’s
press conference, Butte County Public Health highlighted the impact of higher case numbers on the county’s ability to conduct contact tracing and case investigation.
Butte County reported a single-week high 893 new cases during the week of Dec. 8-14, easily topping the previous week high of 477 new cases. Due to that increase in new cases, Butte County Public Health said it is prioritizing those efforts, which are important in breaking transmission among close contacts and stopping outbreaks.
That means not everyone who tests positive for COVID-19, or close contacts of a positive case, will receive a call directly from Butte County Public Health. The county health department said it will
prioritize older adults, health care workers, people at increased risk for complications from the virus and high- risk facilities.
As of the staff ’s last known count, York estimated Butte County Public Health had between 12 and 15 people working in contact tracing and case investigation roles. Many of them are state employees who have been trained to work those jobs and dispatched to counties across California to assist.
“These are state employees that have been trained to do these jobs, but are helping counties during this time,” York said, “and we are so grateful for that program. These employees that are working with us have been instrumental in helping us keep up to date on these cases up to this point. With this significant increase in cases, that is not possible to continue to call every single person, either those that have the virus, or those that have been in contact.”
With Thursday’s update on its COVID- 19 dashboard,
Butte County Public Health reported 97 new cases, and a total of 804 active cases in the county, more than double what it was two weeks ago. Thirty- eight Butte County residents are currently hospitalized. One additional individual died due to complications from the virus, which was reported on Thursday, bringing the total number of virus-related deaths in the county to 75.
Addit ionally, Butte County Public Health will soon be reporting “probable” positive cases on its dashboard along with confirmed positives. This is due to an increase in rapid antigen tests, which detects proteins on the surface of the virus, whereas PCR tests detects viral genetic material. According to Butte County Public Health, the CDPH only considers PCR tests as confirmed cases for the purposes of state metrics and dashboards.