County To Hold Covid-19 Vaccination Clinic At Sfo
Bay City News Service
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With the release of city-level vaccination data and an upcoming vaccination clinic at the San Francisco International Airport (SFO), San Mateo County continues to make strides in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts.
These announcements were made Tuesday during a meeting of the county s Board of Supervisors, where Chief of San Mateo County Health Louise Rogers gave a presentation along with Dr. Anand Chabra, the county s COVID-19 mass vaccination section chief and Family Health Services medical director.
Chabra said that in addition to the vaccination clinic at SFO, there will be a clinic for second-dose vaccinations at the San Mateo County Event Center. The clinics are operated by the county as part of its effort to be a safety net for people who have no health plan or no other way to access the vaccine.
CVS and Walgreens, which receive vaccine doses directly from the federal government, have scheduled over 90% of the 527 enrolled long-term care facilities in the county, Chabra said.
A county partnership with Safeway provided vaccination to an additional 765 staff and residents at assisted living facilities. Of the 28,725 first doses that the county received, over 92% have been administered to patients or distributed to other health care providers, Chabra said.
This week, the county will focus on vaccinating adults 65 and older in disadvantaged communities.
The county hosted another vaccination clinic at the San Mateo County Event Center over the weekend, in partnership with Dignity Health. About 818 health care workers were vaccinated at the clinic on Saturday and more appointments are scheduled Tuesday, Chabra said.
The massive bay doors of the San Mateo County Event Center stood wide open this weekend as thousands of eligible Dignity Health patients waited their turn to get their Pfizer shot. Volunteers ushered cars along the production line, waving large orange flags like aircraft marshals.
It was the second of the countyâs mass vaccination clinics so far, and, by the end of the day Tuesday, around 4,300 San Mateo County residents would receive the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccine.
The three-day clinic united Dignity Healthâs Sequoia Hospital, which provided vaccines and vaccinators, with a laundry list of county departments that offered the space and coordinated the logistics and safety of the site. County Health Information Officer Preston Merchant said the clinic will serve as a model for future partnerships with local health care providers or a blueprint for hospital systems to set up their own similar sites.
Seniors awaiting a potentially life-saving COVID-19 vaccine got a ray of hope after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week the state would allow anyone 65 or older to get their
If last weekâs vaccine rollout to seniors â where phone lines were tied up for hours and online portals crashed â is any indication, getting enough county residents access to the vaccine will be no small feat.â¯
Health leaders at San Mateo County say they must vaccinate 90 percent of the adult population, or around 557,000 people, to achieve herd immunity locally. But even when supply catches up to demand and doses become widely available, many barriers stand in the way of getting enough shots into arms.â¯
The location and timing of a site matters for working residents, language and technology can prevent signups, and so can fear, mistrust and misinformation. Shireen Malekafzali, county senior manager for Health Policy, Planning and Equity, said the hurdles are endless.â¯