'Be Patient': Santa Clara County Officials Fear Vaccine Backlog

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County officials aimed to dampen local anticipation of COVID-19 vaccine availability on Thursday after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced sweeping new eligibility dates starting next week.

On April 1, Californians 50 and older will be eligible to be vaccinated, and on April 15, vaccinations will open to anyone 16 and older.

But hours after the state’s announcement, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county’s testing and vaccine officer, cautioned residents during a news conference that the supply of the vaccine remains limited and may prevent those in the new age categories from immediately being able to register.

According to Fenstersheib, there are 400,000 people between the ages of 50 and 64 living in the county.

“That’s a lot of people to add to our list,” Fenstersheib said. “We are concerned beginning next week, when we add that additional 400,000 people and we don’t have the vaccine. We want to caution people to please continue to be patient.”

Fenstersheib said that the county is projected to receive 58,000 doses of vaccine next week, which “doesn’t go very far.” The county and other vaccine providers have the capability to vaccinate 200,000 people a week.

“We have the capacity and ability to rev up two, three times what we’re doing now, but we don’t have the vaccine,” Fenstersheib said.

As of Wednesday, the county’s vaccination dashboard indicates that nearly 30 percent of residents 16 and older have received at least one dose. Over 55 percent of residents 75 and older have been fully vaccinated.

The county also announced on Thursday that it had confirmed its first case of the P.1 variant, which was first identified in Brazil. The case was discovered this week in a resident who had returned from an out-of-state trip and had their specimen randomly tested for genomic sequencing. The county also has 19 confirmed cases of the U.K. variant and two confirmed cases of the South African variant.

Fenstersheib underscored the importance of vaccinating as much of the population as possible before variants spread. He said that residents can also try scheduling appointments through the federal pharmacy partnership program with CVS and Walgreens, which are receiving doses directly from the government.

“I can’t guarantee there will be one at this point,” Fenstersheib said. “But keep trying, keep trying and there will be appointments in the next coming weeks.”

Visit sccfreevax.org for more information on vaccinations. For more news and information about the vaccine rollout in California, visit Patch's information hub. Also, be sure to check out How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California