Weather delays delivery of vaccine

Extreme weather across the United States has delayed coronavirus vaccine deliveries and could impact immunization clinics in Tuolumne County next week, the county Public Health Department said Wednesday.

Individuals age 70 and older who have not yet received COVID-19 vaccinations, do not have appointments scheduled, and want to be vaccinated were urged Wednesday to call Tuolumne County Public Health at (209) 533-7440.

The department also counted four new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, with zero new cases involving inmates at the Sierra Conservation Center state prison outside Jamestown.

The four new cases Wednesday were identified as two men and a woman in their 60s; and a woman in her 90s.

Tuolumne County’s death toll from COVID-19 remained at 55 on Wednesday.

Also as of Wednesday, Tuolumne County had counted 3,857 total coronavirus cases since early last year when the pandemic began, with 2,481 community cases and 1,376 inmate cases. Inmate cases accounted for 35.67% of Tuolumne County’s cases. No inmates at the SCC prison have died from COVID-19, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

There were 45 active cases of coronavirus in Tuolumne County and two Covid-positive individuals were hospitalized as of Wednesday.

Tuolumne County’s daily case rate of 13.1 per 100,000 people and testing positive rate of 4% were down slightly from the previous week. Nevertheless, the county remained in the state’s purple tier for widespread risk of coronavirus infection.

Statistics

Tuolumne County (as of Feb. 17)

Total cases: 3,857 (2,481 community; 1,376 inmates) Deaths: 55 Recovered: 2,381 Active cases: 45 Active hospitalized: 2 Tests conducted: 69,403 (51,383 community; 18,020 inmates)

Vaccinations given: 9,792

Calaveras County (as of Feb. 17)

Total cases: 1,899 Deaths: 25 Recovered: 1,837 Active cases: 37 Active hospitalized: 1 Tests conducted: 22,655 Vaccinations given: 7,395

California (as of Feb. 17): 3,416,147 total cases; 47,507 deaths; 46,384,932 tests conducted; 6,435,184 vaccines given.

United States (as of Feb. 17): 27,832,979 total cases; 490,875 deaths.

World (as of Feb. 17): 110,064,878 total cases; 2,434,048 deaths.

Sources: Tuolumne County Public Health Department, Calaveras County Public Health Division, California Department of Public Health, John Hopkins University.

Testing

When you should get tested: Five days after travel or close contact with others outside of your household; as soon as possible if experiencing symptoms; and/or every 14 to 28 days if regularly working with the public. Testing is available from:

• Local health care providers;

• Adventist Health Sonora, call first: (209) 536-5166; • Optum Serv state testing sites: Mother Lode Fairgrounds at 220 Southgate Drive, Sonora, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week; Groveland Community Hall, 18720 Main St., Groveland, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays; and Tuolumne Memorial Hall, 18375 Fir Ave., Tuolumne, 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays.

Appointments to state testing sites are recommended and can be scheduled at www.lhi. care/covidtesting or by calling (888) 634-1123.

Vaccinations

• The Tuolumne County Public Health Department continues to distribute COVID-19 vaccine doses to people in Phase 1A and Phase 1B-tier 1 of a state vaccine distribution plan, for individuals 70 and older as well as education workers, childcare workers, and emergency services workers. Visit www.tuolumnecounty. ca.gov/1317/covid-vaccine online for more information.

• CVS stores in Sonora and Angels Camp are offering COVID-19 vaccinations for people 65 and older, sign up here: https:// www.cvs.com/immunizations/ covid-19-vaccine

• Adventist Health Sonora has been hosting weekend vaccination clinics at the Mother Lode Fairgrounds for people 65 and older. Find out more information by going to www.adventisthealthsonora. org/covidvaccine or call (209) 536-5165.

• To find out if you’re eligible and register for upcoming staterun vaccination clinics, visit: https://myturn.ca.gov/

The U.S. vaccine supply is poised to double in the coming weeks and months, according to an analysis by Bloomberg, allowing a broad expansion of doses administered across the country.

Currently, the U.S. is administering 1.6 million doses a day, constrained by the recent supply of about 10 million to 15 million doses a week. But COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers and U.S. officials have accelerated their production timelines and signaled that the spigots are about to open, providing hundreds of millions of doses to match the growing capacity to immunize people at pharmacies and mass-vaccination sites.

A review of drugmakers’ public statements and their supply deals suggests that the number of vaccines delivered should rise to almost 20 million a week in March, more than 25 million a week in April and May, and over 30 million a week June. By summer, it would be enough to give 4.5 million shots a day.

Bloomberg’s analysis is based on company and government statements, data on the number of shots already delivered and conversations with people familiar with the manufacturing effort who spoke on condition of anonymity. The analysis assumes drugmakers will meet their new delivery targets — not a guarantee in a year-old pandemic where much has gone wrong.

Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. have promised to deliver more than 500 million additional doses by the end of July, and Johnson & Johnson is expected to deliver 100 million doses of its one-shot vaccine by the end of June. Taken together, that’s enough to vaccinate 400 million people — more than is needed to cover all of the U.S. — before the end of July.

Additional details from the companies make it possible to model their deliveries more precisely. Pfizer has said it will have shipped 120 million doses by the end of March — more than 10 million a week from now until then. Moderna this week said it would deliver 30 million to 35 million doses a month in February and March, and 40 million to 50 million a month after that. Because of differences in how doses are manufactured and then made available, Bloomberg’s projections may not exactly match when doses will be or have been delivered.

“What we are going to see is every week a continued ramp,” said Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser for COVID response. By the end of March, he said, there should be 200 million doses available for distribution to states — about 90 million more than the current total, according to U.S. figures.

“That implies there will be a whole lot more than there are today,” Slavitt said during an online interview with the Washington Post Thursday.

Drugmakers have missed some previous projections following scientific setbacks and manufacturing failures. To mitigate those risks, the U.S. reached agreements to buy at least 1.21 billion doses, far more than what’s needed to cover all Americans.

Even if the promised doses are delivered, the U.S. would face a daunting logistical challenge of administering them, and President Joe Biden’s administration has remained conservative in its own projections. On Wednesday, Jeff Zeints, White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the government hoped to have enough vaccines to cover 300 million Americans by the end of July — about 100 million people less and a month later than what Bloomberg’s analysis indicates is coming.

“There are opportunities for things to go better, but like this week’s weather proves, there are surprises in store as well,” Slavitt said, referring to winter storms that have slowed vaccination efforts across the country.

Administration officials including Zeints as well as Biden’s chief medical adviser, Anthony Fauci, have also talked down J&J’S expected production, saying they expect it to be backloaded toward the summer.

In a statement this week, J&J said it “intends to distribute vaccine to the U.S. government immediately following authorization, and expects to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. in the first half of 2021.”

In the meantime, expectations of an increasing amount of vaccine are being matched by an expanding on-the-ground capacity to get it into arms.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has been preparing mass-vaccination centers, such as a temporary site in Delaware that aims to perform 18,000 vaccinations over a week. Around the country, the federal government has begun to gradually feed vaccine doses to pharmacies — with 6,500 locations so far — to start giving shots to the broader public. In early January the White House said it would allow retired nurses and doctors to return to work to help administer vaccines.

“We need to increase the number of places where people can get vaccinated, and also at the same time increase the number of vaccinators,” Zeints said on Jan. 27, describing the program for retired health workers.

States have made clear they are ready for more doses than they are currently getting. Michigan’s top health official said early this month that the state could perform 80,000 vaccinations a day — at least 30,000 more than its recent daily average. In California, officials are opening sites like the Levi’s Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49ers, where they will be able to perform 15,000 doses a day.

In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio said the city had delayed opening several mass-vaccination sites while waiting for doses.

“We have the infrastructure in place to deliver half a million doses per week. All that’s missing is the supply to get it done,” de Blasio said in a statement Wednesday.

The story of the COVID-19 pandemic has been frustration and disappointment, and one lesson the Biden administration may have learned from the previous occupants of the White House is that there’s little upside in over-promising and underdelivering.

Biden came into office targeting 100 million doses in 100 days, a daily rate that was achieved 72 hours after he was sworn in on Jan. 20 (the U.S. has administered 57.4 million doses as of Wednesday, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker). His administration has benefited from the vaccine programs started under the Trump administration to develop and buy the shots. And while Biden White House officials have often talked-down the handoff of the program, much of the manufacturing and delivery momentum was created months before Biden took office.