- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
State to allow for people under age 65 with severe illness or disabilities to receive COVID-19 vaccine earlier
Last month, the state added people age 65 and older to its priority tiers, with the governor announcing that age is to be a primary factor in determining eligibility going forward.
That raised concerns for Californians with disabilities and chronic health conditions who don’t meet the age requirements that they could be kept waiting for the vaccine.
On Friday, the state said it’s now going to give health care providers additional flexibility to vaccinate younger individuals who have underlying health conditions or high-risk disabilities, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said.
Effective March 15, health care providers will be able to use their clinical judgement to vaccinate people age 16 to 64 who are deemed to be at the very highest risk for morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 as a direct result of pregnancy, cancer, chronic kidney disease (stage four and above), oxygen-dependent chronic pulmonary disease, oxygen dependent, Down syndrome, immunocompromised state from a solid organ transplant, sickle cell disease, heart conditions, such as heart failure, coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathies (excluding hypertension), severe obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus with hemoglobin A1c level greater than 7.5 percent.
Also allowed to receive vaccinations under this new rule are individuals who have developmental or other severe high-risk disabilities that make them likely to develop severe life-threatening illness or death from COVID-19 infection; individuals for whom acquiring COVID-19 would limit their ability to receive ongoing care or services vital to their well-being and survival; and those for whom providing adequate and timely COVID care will be particularly challenging as a result of their disability, according to the provider’s bulletin the state released to Lake County News.
Ghaly said about four to six million Californians are estimated to be in those groups.
That’s in addition to the 13 million individuals now eligible in the first tier, which includes Phase 1A, health care workers and residents of long term care facilities, and Phase 1B, workers in the food and agriculture, education and childcare, and emergency service sectors, and Californians age 65 and above.
State officials are focusing on saving lives, promoting equity and getting to the other side of the pandemic, Ghaly said.
As part of that process, the state realizes that certain individuals have additional risk factors based on various disabilities and conditions. “This is a recognition of that,” Ghaly said of the changes adding the new groups to the vaccination tiers.
The March 15 date allows for stakeholders, providers and other groups to make sure there are services and capacity so that the individuals in these new priority groups receive the vaccine, Ghaly explained.
“We believe this planning period is appropriate,” said Ghaly.
At the same time, Ghaly said the state is still dealing with the scarcity of vaccines.
While the state now can get a three-week vaccine outlook from its federal partners, Ghaly said he can’t say how soon the state will have enough vaccine to get vaccinations for the 13 million individuals now eligible and the up to six million more who will be added in March.
“Supply is the hardest piece,” he said.
Administration officials told reporters on Friday that the process for distributing the vaccine has been based on eligible populations. Early on, those amounts were specifically based on how many health care workers were in each county.
In the state’s conversations with the federal government, Ghaly said there are indications that the availability of vaccine from manufacturers could be going way up by late spring or early summer.
At the same time, Ghaly noted that in distributing the vaccine, “Equity is front of mind.”
He added, “Achieving equity is simply doing more for those who have been disproportionately impacted,” whether due to age, race or sexual orientation.
State to roll out third party administrator to oversee vaccination network
Also on Friday, administration officials discussed with reporters the introduction of a third party administrator who will be part of building a statewide vaccine administration network, a plan Gov. Gavin Newsom first announced last month.
Newsom’s office said the third party administrator will allocate vaccines directly to providers to maximize distribution efficiency.
The third party administrator will ensure that the state vaccine provider network includes appropriate access in disproportionately impacted communities and supplements this access with evening/extended hours, transportation services, translation services, home-bound services, mobile vaccine services and physical accessibility features at vaccination events, administration officials said.
Officials said that they will have individual conversations with county Public Health leadership about their challenges with vaccinations as well as where the process is working to help inform the third party administrator as they build out the state vaccine provider network.
Under the third party administrator, counties will have wide latitude to determine who receives the vaccine, administration officials said.
On Tuesday, Lake County Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace convened the first meeting of the
COVID-19 Ethics Ad Hoc Committee that he has assembled.
Lake County News asked Pace on Friday how that committee and its suggestions on prioritizing vaccinations would interact with the changes the state is implementing, including the introduction of the third party administrator.
“Still working on a lot of the specifics,” Pace responded in an email.
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