Solano: Previous appointments to continue; clinics will now use Moderna or Pfizer vaccines

Although California health officials have told health care providers to suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, no Solano County appointments will be canceled.

Those clinics in the county will instead switch to either Moderna or Pfizer, Solano County Public

Health Administrator Jayleen Richards told the Times-Herald on Tuesday.

“No J&J vaccination clinics in Solano County will be canceled and people with prior registration appointments are to continue to those appointments as planned,” Richards said. “The only difference is now those clinics will be using either Moderna or Pfizer

and that the patients will now have to come back in either three or four weeks for a second dose.”

The news comes as federal regulatory agencies recommended a pause in J&J shots due to a rare side effect that can cause blood clots.

State epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan said Tuesday that California is following recommendations of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration in directing providers to pause use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “until we receive further direction from health and safety experts.”

Contra Costa, Santa Clara and San Francisco health officials earlier Tuesday had already announced that they were suspending use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The CDC and FDA issued a joint statement Tuesday saying that after more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been administered in the United States. They are reviewing data involving six reported cases in the country of a “rare and severe type of blood clot” in people who had received it. Those cases involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination. One of them has died.

According to the CDC website the J&J/Janssen vaccine was 66.3 percent effective in clinical trials (efficacy) at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who had no evidence of prior infection two weeks after receiving the vaccine.

Solano County was already seeing a decrease in the number of vaccine doses available and doesn’t expect the number to go up for at least two weeks. On Thursday anyone not already eligible for the vaccine previously will have an opportunity to get the shot. In fact, Solano County made the shot available for anyone 16 and over on Monday, a few days ahead of schedule.

“We opened up the 16plus tier yesterday because when we were opening up clinics they weren’t filling up like they previously had been,” Richards said. “That’s usually an indicator that we could go ahead to the next grouping.”

Despite a possible increase in demand for the vaccine, there are no large events scheduled in Solano County as of now for a first dose.

The Solano County Fairgrounds will be hosting second-dose clinics all week, but Richards said the only places that will give out the first dose will be smaller pop-up clinics located at churches and other smaller community gathering places, but that those clinics will be able to give around 1,000 doses a day at the most. Richards also encouraged everyone to fill out an interest form, should a shot become available in their city.

On March 4, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that 40 percent of the state’s coronavirus vaccine supply will be allocated for zip codes in the bottom 25 percent of the Healthy Places Index, deemed most vulnerable to the pandemic. About 8 million people reside in these zip codes. There were 10 zip codes listed for the Bay Area, and four zip codes listed for Solano County. Those in Solano County are

• 94535 (Fairfield)

• 94590 (Vallejo)

• 94512 (Birds Landing)

• 95625 (Elmira)

Due to the small amount of first doses for the next few weeks, Richards said that prioritizations may need to be made in the next tier of people and focus on those most at risk and those with underlying health conditions.

Solano County has seen 31,673 COVID-19 cases, 280 of which are currently active. There have been 209 deaths and the 7-day positivity rate is at 5.6 percent. Solano is in the red tier (substantial) and is one of the only Bay Area counties not in the orange tier. In order to get into the orange tier a county must have between 2.0 and 5.9 daily new cases per 100,000 as well as having a positive test rate between 2.0 and 4.9.

“We’re going to stay in the red tier for a least another week,” Richards said. “The good thing is that Solano can’t move back to the purple tier anymore as was previously feared. Guidelines were made late last week that says if the hospitalization rates look good then the county doesn’t have to move back and we’re looking good in that area now.”