LAKE COUNTY— Dr. Gary Pace, Lake County’s public health officer, urged the community at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting to have patience this week as the county transitions to the state vaccination appointment system.
Beginning Friday, local appointments will be made at myturn.ca.gov. Pace said he anticipated some “bumps” in the rollout.
“Just recognize that this is just part of the process, but it will help,” he said. “Once we get to where we’re getting two to three times as much vaccine, this setup will be better, I think.”
As predicted by public health officials, the state reclassified the county into the less restrictive red tier later in the day. Pace said the county was projected to be able to move into the orange tier next month.
“We’re even starting to talk about the orange tier … I don’t even know that I’ve talked about that the whole time,” he said. “Things are really looking up and it’s going to be a better summer.”
Pace said he expected doses coming into the county to remain consistent in the next couple of weeks and then a dramatic increase to come in April.
“Vaccine hesitancy is a real thing and I want to really encourage people to think twice if you get an opportunity to get vaccinated … The more people we get vaccinated, we’re gonna get back to normal,” he said. That’s just a straight up equation.”
The county began offering vaccines on Monday to people ages 16 to 64 with certain medical conditions making them more likely to die from COVID-19. The county was going to require a doctor’s note but that is not necessary because of a change at the state level. People in that category wanting a dose only need to self-declare that they have an eligible condition.
“We’re not challenging that,” Pace said.
Pace said there would be changes to the vaccine distribution sites beginning next week. Vaccine doses will be administered one day in Lakeport, because of decreasing demand there, and three days in Clearlake going forward, he said.
Supervisor Tina Scott asked when people would be able to make vaccine appointments weeks, not days in advance. Pace said he didn’t know for certain but that it should be possible soon with the rollout of the state appointment system.
Over 20% of Lake County residents over age 16 have received vaccine doses so far. Sarah Marikos, epidemiologist for Lake County, said about 5,700 people in Lake County over age 16 — equivalent to 11% of the population — had received one vaccine dose. Marikos said 5,900 local residents — 11% of the population — were fully vaccinated. She added that the county was changing the way it presented vaccination data in order to match the state.
In other actions, the board unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding between the county and the state over COVID-19 vaccine allocations. This comes as Blue Shield of California has been hired by the state to serve as the third party administrator for vaccine distribution.
The contract stipulates that the county cannot reallocate any vaccines it receives to other health care providers and that it must follow state eligibility requirements going forward, among other changes.
