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The only private healthcare provider in Santa Clara County to vaccinate people under 74 has changed course.
After vaccinating people 65 and older for several days, Kaiser Permanente changed its COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to patients 75 and older – although California allows people 65 and older to be vaccinated . The change brings Kaiser into line with the county’s directive to vaccinate people 75 and older due to a vaccine shortage.
“This is related to vaccine supplies and in accordance with California Department of Public Health guidelines,” Kaiser officials said in a statement to the San José Spotlight.
The change also aligns Kaiser with all of the county’s other healthcare providers who vaccinate people 75 and older. Kaiser was the only health care provider in the county with different criteria.
“It has been extremely difficult at the local level to manage expectations as directions all around us change,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County Public Health Officer, at a meeting of the committee. County Health and Hospital Jan. 19.
Santa Clara County hospitals this week received just under 30,000 vaccines from the state, Cody said. Officials have warned that the vaccine shortage makes it difficult to inoculate all eligible healthcare workers, let alone elderly residents. County supervisors write letter to state urging them to provide more doses.
Kaiser tried to follow the lead of the state – but didn’t have enough doses to continue.
“With the statewide expansion, Kaiser fell in line, but of course our local Kaiser didn’t have the vaccine to be able to vaccinate this population and created a lot of frustration,” Cody said.
Cody and other health officials have pointed out that the current vaccine supply from state and federal governments is unpredictable and unreliable. The state provides vaccines to the county and some private health care providers, such as the Kaiser an Palo Alto Medical Foundation, while the federal government sends vaccines directly to CVS and Walgreens for long-term care programs and veterans.
“At the moment, we have what appears to be relatively consistent criteria between or among Sutter (Health), Kaiser and our county operations,” Supervisor Joe Simitian said. “But is there any guarantee that this will be the case in a week or in two weeks?”
Cody confirmed that the vaccine supply is extremely limited and varies by vendor.
Earlier this month, Santa Clara County revealed that it had administered less than half of the vaccines assigned to it.
Santa Clara County released a dashboard this week, with real-time figures on the number of vaccines delivered and administered to each hospital, as well as the number of vaccine appointments scheduled for the next seven days. .
According to the dashboard, Kaiser has 5,400 vaccination appointments scheduled until next Wednesday.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese
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