County gauging vaccine interest
State, county efforts to notify residents when vaccines are available for their tier
Humboldt County residents interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine can now sign up to be notified by the county when doses are available for their tier.
According to the county, the vaccine interest form takes a couple of minutes to complete and asks for basic information like name, email, zip code and willingness or ability to travel to a clinic in another part of the county. Signing up does not place an individual ahead of someone else in a higher priority group.
Though vaccination priority remains focused on health care workers and people over the age of 75, the county said it is working to expand vaccination appointments to the Phase 1B group “in the coming days and weeks.”
During a news briefing on Monday afternoon, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a similar statewide pilot program called My Turn. Newsom said the pilot program was launched in Los Angeles and San Diego counties last week and will become available statewide after it is deemed reliable.
“You sign up, you get notified via text or email when it’s your turn and you can schedule an appointment when it’s your turn,” Newsom said.
My Turn also functions as a “centralized system to enter vaccines that are received and administered,” and will enable providers to automatically share vaccination data across the state and eventually with the federal government, Newsom said.
“We started this last week in L.A. and San Diego (counties). They started allowing individuals 65 and over, again with the prioritization of the cohorts we just mentioned a moment ago, to make appointments for those clinics that have signed up and come into the pilot,” Newsom said. “The most important point I want to make about the My Turn pilot is it’s only as good as the clinics and provider networks. It gets more robust as more people come online.”
Newsom lifted the stayat-home order imposed on three of the state’s five regions on Monday as positive cases of COVID-19 continue to decline across the state. Humboldt County, as a part of the Northern California region, was not subject to that order.
“We are in a position projecting four weeks forward with a significant decline in the case rates, positivity rates,” Newsom said. “We are anticipating still more decline in hospitalizations and ICUs, that’s why we’re lifting the stay-at-home order effective immediately.”
California’s 14-day positivity rate dropped to 9.4% this week, down from 13.6% a few weeks ago, Newsom said. The state’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly will provide an update to the Blueprint for a Safer Economy on Tuesday. It’s unclear whether Humboldt County will shift down from the ‘widespread’ purple tier to the ‘moderate spread’ red tier, but the county’s positivity rate is below 5%, one metric the state uses to make the determination.
“Everything that should be down is down: case rates, positivity rates, hospitalizations and ICUs. Testing is starting to go back up as well as vaccination rates in this state, but we are not out of the woods,” Newsom said. “Vaccines are the light at the end of the tunnel, and I am focused on taking the steps needed to get Californians safely vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
Newsom said the state has tripled its vaccination rate from 43,459 per day on Jan.4 to 131,620 on Jan. 15. “The ten-day effort to ramp up vaccinations exposed key improvements needed to administer even more vaccines when increased supply becomes available,” he added.
Newsom also extended the statewide eviction moratorium through June 30 in an effort to “protect tenants and small landlords from losing their housing as the nation continues to confront the pandemic.”
To fill out Humboldt County’s online interest form, go to humboldtgov.org/InterestForm.
“You sign up, you get notified via text or email when it’s your turn and you can schedule an appointment when it’s your turn.”
— Gov. Gavin Newsom