Santa Cruz County passes 110,000 COVID-19 vaccinations

SANTA CRUZ >> As of Monday, more than 110,000 shots had been administered to Santa Cruz County residents, according to the California Department of Public Health.

As supply allows, more will be administered to a new group this week — those between the ages of 16 and 64 that are at higher risk of serious COVID-19 illness.

According to the CDPH, an estimated 4.4 million more people will be eligible statewide as vaccination will be made available to those with health conditions, disabilities, illness, and those in living spaces or work environments that make them more susceptible to severe illness.

Individuals with those stipulations could be

prioritized by their primary health care provider starting this week. Providers are called to use their clinical judgment, according to the state, to vaccinate individuals at the very highest risk.

This list includes those suffering from:

• A current case of cancer with a weakened immune system.

• Chronic kidney disease that is deemed stage 4 or above.

• Chronic pulmonary disease with an oxygen dependency.

• Down syndrome.

• Solid organ transplant patients with a weakened immune system.

• Pregnancy.

• Sickle cell disease.

• Heart conditions such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies not including hypertension.

• Severe obesity.

• Type 2 diabetes mellitus with a hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5%.

In addition, if one’s developmental or other severe disability or illness is likely to cause life-threatening illness or death from a COVID-19 infection, to limit that person’s ability to receive ongoing care or services or create an issue around adequate and timely care they can also be prioritized by a provider.

Those living in a congregate setting such as a detention facility, homeless shelter or behavioral health facility were eligible for vaccination on Monday as congregate settings pose a high risk for outbreaks. This includes the unhoused population.

Public transit workers such as airport workers for commercial airlines and bus drivers are the final category eligible under the newest guidance, as they are at risk for occupational exposure, state leaders say on the COVID-19 vaccine page.

Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency spokesperson Corinne Hyland echoed the state’s guidance of going to a provider first but offered confirmation that those uninsured can check the county’s vaccine page for a list of who is providing vaccine to all eligible residents. To stay in the loop around vaccination prioritization, residents can also sign up for the state’s MyTurn system at myturn.ca.gov and be notified when doses are available to them.

“Although vaccine supply is limited now, we anticipate supply significantly increasing in the month of April,” Hyland said.

The county is encouraged by the emergence and recent distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, health leaders have said in recent weekly updates with members of the media. The county anticipates its next shipment of the single-shot vaccine to arrive March 23. As of Monday, the county had received at least 1,300 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine from an initial shipment right after the confirmation of the Food and Drug Administration’s approval.

Three 7e0 deeths

Though the county has made strides in bringing COVID-19 figures down in the last month, deaths are still recorded on the county’s coronavirus data dashboard. Three new deaths appeared on the dashboard Monday.

All three of the individuals who died of their COVID-19 illness were men, according to side-by-side screenshots of the last two dashboard updates. One did not have a significant health condition that would have contributed to his death while the other two did. Two of the men were in their 70s while one man was in his 80s; one man was Latino while the other two were white. One man was a resident of Rachelle’s Home I in Freedom while two were not residents of a congregate living facility.

Approximately 57 new cases were reported over the weekend. Two new active cases were reflected in the dashboard along with 52 new recovered cases. There were six new hospitalizations from Friday to Monday; more than 700 new labs came back negative during the time frame.