Vaccine clinics begin amidst ‘tipping point’ in Lake County
LAKE COUNTY >> Tuesday marked the first day for standup vaccination clinics in Lake County, as Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace said the region remained at a “tipping point.”
With the clinics opening and addition of contract employees, the county is better positioned to receive and distribute as many vaccinations as possible, Pace said. The problem is there remains to be a much higher demand than supply, with an average of 400 vaccines coming into the county each week.
“Very frustrating for the public, I know,” he said. “It’s very difficult to manage this because there’s thousands and thousands of people that want it and we only have a few hundred doses.”
Pace said the county remained in the anticipated surge following the holidays and encour
aged people to “hunker down” and avoid contact with the public as much as possible for the next few weeks. As of Monday, there were 330 active COVID-19 cases in Lake County and 19 people had been hospitalized in the last seven days. There had been 30 deaths and 2,514 cases locally since the start of the pandemic.
Those who can be vaccinated in Lake County are those in Tier 1B — people over 65 as well as teachers and school staff. The county is following the direction of the federal and state governments, but ultimately the decision on local tiers is up to Pace, who said his inbox was filled with messages from people advocating for vaccines for their family members. He said the county was targeting those who were most vulnerable and that appointments were not “first come, first served” as some people were under the impression.
“Really what I’m trying to do here is control the expectations so we don’t have 10,000 people thinking they’re going to be able to get vaccines this week and we only have 400 doses … I’m trying to control that with appointments and being as clear and transparent as possible,” he said.
When Lake County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bruno Sabatier raised concerns about the possibility of people who weren’t Lake County residents to try to get a vaccine locally, Pace said that was next to impossible because people weren’t able to call and make an appointment. Rather, they must be contacted first, by a senior center, for example.
Currently all appointments are booked, Pace said, but people over 65 years old will be able to make appointments through their medical providers including Sutter Health and Adventist Health. The school districts are coordinating vaccinations for their employees. The county is working on setting up mobile clinics that can be dispatched to employers.
Pace said the county was not stockpiling vaccines and that the goal was to distribute vaccines within seven days of receiving them.
“Once we get to a stable state or once we get more vaccines coming in, then we’ll be able to open it to the rest of the folks in Tier 1B, the first level, which is childcare workers and food and ag workers and other emergency workers that haven’t already been vaccinated,” Pace said.
The board of supervisors also unanimously approved a resolution directing county departments to limit in-person contact with the public as much as possible — going back to their protocols at the start of the pandemic, given the current coronavirus surge. Department heads were instructed to let the public know about any changes to services.
“We need to step up our game,” Sabatier said. “We need to show exactly what we’re asking everyone to do.”
The board also briefly discussed Friday closures for county offices and determined that an ad hoc committee that supervisors Tina Scott and Moke Simon sit on should consult with department heads before making a decision. The item will be brought back at the board’s next meeting.
The board also unanimously approved amendments to the county’s COVID-19 protocols, including a new requirement that masks also be worn by employees outdoors as well as indoors and updates to the policy for sending workers home who’ve had close contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.