California shifting to more centralized system, aims to streamline vaccine deliveries
State adds sign-up tool, official to oversee distribution plan
LOS ANGELES — California is changing the way it is delivering coronavirus vaccines, moving to a more centralized system that is expected to streamline appointment sign-up, notification and eligibility for nearly 40 million residents who want to know when they can get a shot and where.
A new statewide secretary will spearhead operations and delivery, working with private third-party administrators to decide where the state’s supply of vaccine should go when the federal supply ramps up to meet demand, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday.
A new sign-up tool will allow the state to better track where vaccines have gone and who has been vaccinated, while also allowing residents to schedule an appointment when it is their turn.
California has been dinged for vaccinating so few people even amid a national vaccine shortage, administering about 2.4 million of 4.5 million doses shipped.
Residents are clamoring for more information on when they might be vaccinated, frustrated by eligibility rules that vary by county and by hospital system.
Yolanda Richardson, newly appointed secretary of the government operations agency, said at a Tuesday briefing that this new system is “about California being prepared to make sure that we can get out the vaccine when more supply is available.”
California’s health department has released to the public previously secret projections for future hospital intensive care unit capacity throughout the state, the key metric for lifting the coronavirus stay-at-home order.
However, state officials did not explain how regional per capita virus cases and transmission rates that also were released might influence how much ICU space will be available in four weeks.
Last week, state health officials said they were keeping all the data secret because it is complicated and might mislead the public.
The release of the data points came after coronavirus experts, joined by a public access organization and a business group, said the information should be public.
Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist and infectious-diseases control expert at University of California, San Francisco, was among the critics.
He applauded the state for being more open. He said it’s “not utterly transparent, but I have a better idea of what’s going on.”
In other developments:
■ “Several hundred” White House staffers have been vaccinated for COVID-19 as the Biden administration looks to create a safe workspace for the new president. Spokesman Kevin Munoz said the White House has provided the first of the two-shot vaccination to those who work onsite and is working toward vaccinating all staffers in the coming weeks.
■ A member of the Georgia state House was removed from the chamber for not abiding by the legislature’s coronavirus testing policy. Rep.
David Clark, a Republican, was asked to leave the House floor Tuesday morning. Clark refused to leave on his own and had to be escorted out by police.
■ Several gorillas at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park appear to be recovering weeks after testing positive for the coronavirus, including a silverback that received antibody treatment.