As California hospitals and public health officials gear up to vaccinate the next, much larger group of people eligible for coronavirus vaccines — essential workers and people 75 and older — many in this group are wondering how they will be notified that they are eligible for vaccines, and when they can expect them to begin.
It is unclear when exactly this next phase, known as Phase 1b of the vaccine rollout, will start. Some Bay Area counties estimate it will begin in late January or early February. Others do not have a projected timeline. Counties and hospitals are largely still vaccinating people in Phase 1a, who are health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
“Very soon, as the supply increases over the next weeks, you can be expecting a formal announcement of when 1b is in effect,” Dr. Rob Schechter, co-chair of a state vaccine advisory group, said during a public meeting Wednesday.
While likely weeks away, the next stage of the vaccination campaign will pose new challenges for health agencies and providers already struggling to push vaccinations out quickly. The rollout so far is going more slowly than anticipated, with just a quarter of the roughly 2 million doses of vaccine that have been distributed to California going into people’s arms. The current group is about 2.4 million people, and the next group is 15 million — 8.5 million teachers and child care workers, food and agriculture workers, emergency services workers, and people 75 years and older, followed by 6.5 million other essential workers in transportation and critical infrastructure, and people 65 to 74 years old.
“There’s a lot of anxious anticipation for this,” Marin County deputy health officer Dr. Tyler Evans told the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday. “This is the first phase that’s going to include the community.”
Health care providers and public health officials are working out how to notify residents beyond health care workers about vaccinations, but many details have yet to be finalized. Kaiser, the region’s largest health system with 4.5 million members in Northern California, will notify its members by “email, conversations with physicians, reminders and other channels of communication to our members,” a Kaiser spokesman said.
UCSF is working with local health officials on how to contact patients in Phase 1b, said Desi Kotis, UCSF chief pharmacy executive overseeing vaccinations. It may get complicated because a patient, for instance, may have gone to UCSF to see a specialist in the past, but typically goes to another provider for primary care.
“We’re working out those logistics on how we’d contact patients,” Kotis said. “I know patients are asking, they’re inquiring. We are starting to answer their inquiries and place certain messages on our website.”
Some local health departments, including Mariposa County, are building registries to notify people about vaccinations, and doing outreach on social media to get people to sign up. As part of the registry sign-up process, people can indicate if they will need transportation to get to a vaccination site, the county’s public health officer, Dr. Eric Sergienko, said during the Wednesday meeting.
To reach some populations, such as farm workers, health care providers may send vaccination teams out in the community, said Kim Saruwatari, director of Riverside County Public Health Department.
The state department of health is staffing a phone hotline, 1-833-422-4255, and email, covidcallcter@cdph.ca.gov, to answer the public’s questions about vaccines. The agency may also set up an online tool, similar to that in other states, where people can find out whether they are in the phase currently eligible for vaccines.
When vaccines do become available to the broader public, large venues like arenas, fairgrounds, concert halls or their parking lots may be used as vaccination sites. UCSF is “in talks” about the possibility of using the Moscone Center, Cow Palace or Chase Center, Kotis said.
Larger spaces are needed for COVID vaccinations than flu shots because people must be physically distanced if they are waiting in line. And people must be observed for 15 to 30 minutes after receiving the shot to monitor for severe allergic reactions, and that requires waiting in a separate space.
Catherine Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Cat_Ho
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How will you know when you can get a coronavirus vaccine? Officials discuss roll-out - San Francisco Chronicle
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