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In an effort to avoid wasting the COVID-19 vaccine, the state is asking local health departments and providers to expand vaccine prioritization to community health workers, public health staff in the field, clinical clinics. primary care, specialty clinics, laboratory workers, dental clinics and pharmacy staff.
The state also told officials that if a surplus remained even after all those eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine under expanded criteria were granted access, they would have to upgrade to Level 1 in the next phase of the program. distribution, which has not yet been officially taken into effect.
This group includes people who work in education, child care, emergency services and agriculture, as well as those 75 and over.
The announcement comes amid a slower-than-expected vaccine rollout across the state. The slowdown has been attributed to a variety of issues, including the fact that some frontline workers have refused the vaccine and the state does not have a regulated plan for remaining doses.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said distribution rules would be relaxed to prevent the vaccine from being wasted.
“We want to see 100% of what is received immediately delivered to people’s arms, so that’s a challenge,” he said in a briefing. “It’s a challenge across the country – it’s a challenge, by the way, in the rest of the world. But this is no excuse.
Last month, the state’s health department released guidelines that vaccine doses could be offered to people in lower priority groups when demand declines and doses are about to expire.
“Health departments may temporarily adjust prioritization based on other resource constraints while continuing efforts to immunize priority groups as soon as possible,” the guidelines say.
To date, a total of 586,379 doses of vaccine were administered statewide. A total of 2,052,025 doses, which includes the first and second dose, have been shipped to local health facilities and services, the CRPD said.
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