Things to Know: Vaccine shipments coming to US pharmacies
by The Associated Press
Last Updated Feb 2, 2021 at 3:14 pm EDT
Here’s what’s happening Tuesday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.:
THREE THINGS TO KNOW TODAY: The Biden administration will begin shipping COVID-19 vaccines to U.S. pharmacies next week as it seeks to ramp up vaccinations with the appearance of new and potentially more serious virus strains. Coronavirus co-ordinator Jeff Zients said Tuesday that about 6,500 pharmacies around the country will receive a total of 1 million doses of vaccine and that more locations will be added as drugmakers increase production. Pharmacies have become a mainstay for flu shots and shingles vaccines, and the industry is capable of vaccinating tens of millions of people monthly.
Inspector General: California prison transfers during coronavirus caused public health disaster at San Quentin
By Lisa Fernandez
California prisons created public health disaster with transfers, the Office of the Inspector General said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - The Office of the Inspector General, which is the independent oversight body over the California prison system, issued a scathing report Monday on how officials handled coronavirus transfers, saying that the preparation and execution of the transfers were deeply flawed and risked the health and lives of thousands of incarcerated persons and staff.
In fact, the OIG went a step further, saying that the California Correctional Health Care Services and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation caused a public health disaster at San Quentin when they transferred medically vulnerable incarcerated people from the California Institute for Men in Chino to the Marin County prison without taking the proper safegua
Shared housing makes jails and prisons especially susceptible to the spread of COVID-19.
Credit: Megan Wood Author: Mary Plummer | inewsource, Sofía Mejías-Pascoe | inewsource Published: 12:46 PM PST January 29, 2021 Updated: 12:56 PM PST January 29, 2021
CALIFORNIA, USA COVID-19 cases in California prisons and jails began to dramatically surge late last year, but there is no way to get an accurate picture of the pandemic inside these facilities because officials use different approaches to count in-custody deaths tied to the coronavirus.
Using public records, inewsource uncovered reporting mistakes and delays in Southern California and at the state level in tracking inmate deaths from the virus, including in San Diego County. These issues have led to some deaths going uncounted.
25 California prisons have logged more than 1,000 infections. None are in the first wave of vaccinations.
Elected officials, prison rights advocates and inmates’ family members protested for better conditions outside San Quentin State Prison in July. Credit.Jim Wilson/The New York Times
By Ann Hinga Klein
Jan. 2, 2021
California’s prison system, which has been exceptionally hard-hit by the coronavirus, has started vaccinating some inmates but none so far at the 25 prisons that have been most overwhelmed by infections, including San Quentin, Avenal State Prison and the California Institution for Men.
Elizabeth Gransee, a spokeswoman for J. Clark Kelso, a court-appointed official who oversees prison health care in California, said on Wednesday that the prison system had decided to concentrate its vaccination efforts at facilities where “people are at significant risk of becoming infected or severely ill from the coronavirus.”
San Quentin Prison COVID releases delayed by state Supreme Court
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About 1% of the roughly 2,900 inmates at San Quentin State Prison have died from COVID-19.Scott Strazzante / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
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San Quentin State Prison had no reported coronavirus cases until a May transfer of 121 prisoners from the California Institution for Men in Chino, which was the site of the prison system’s largest outbreak.Scott Strazzante / The ChronicleShow MoreShow Less
As COVID-19 swept through San Quentin State Prison, a California appeals court took the dramatic step in October of ordering the release or transfer of at least half of the prison’s inmates. But the court acted without hearing testimony from prison officials, inmates or medical experts, and now the state Supreme Court has put the order on hold and told the appellate panel to take another look.