- Elizabeth Larson
- Posted On
First doses of COVID-19 vaccine arrive in Lake County Thursday
Public Health Officer Dr. Gary Pace confirmed to Lake County News that the vaccine truck arrived at the Public Health Department in Lakeport.
He said the first doses will be given at Sutter Lakeside Hospital in Lakeport on Friday.
Pace said Lake County received 975 doses, “which is really great for us.”
The vaccine offers hope for a way out of the pandemic and back to a more normal life starting in the spring and summer, Pace said, but he advises community members that they must continue for the foreseeable future to follow protocols including social distancing, masking and forgoing holiday travel.
The vaccine comes as the state and the nation are seeing surging caseloads and death rates.
“We’re in this very challenging time. I think the next couple of months are going to be something like we’re not used to seeing,” Pace told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, explaining that his department is planning for major disruptions for the hospital and life in general. “I think this winter is going to be tough.”
The two-dose Pfizer vaccine arrived in Lake County less than a week after it was approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11.
The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee met Thursday to discuss emergency use authorization for a second COVID-19 vaccine, this one from Moderna Inc., which the committee ultimately endorsed.
In a Thursday statement, FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn, M.D., and Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that the FDA has informed Moderna “that it will rapidly work toward finalization and issuance of an emergency use authorization.”
As the vaccines are getting rolled out, federal officials said this week that investigations are underway regarding health care workers who had allergic reactions to the vaccine, specifically, two cases in the United Kingdom and two in Alaska.
While the Moderna vaccine is still awaiting final approval, Pace said that his department has already ordered 100 doses of it and hopes to have it by next week.
That means that 1,075 people in Lake County will have received the first course of the vaccination regimen by the end of next week, Pace said.
Pace said Public Health plans to order more doses of the vaccine weekly.
In reports Pace made to the Board of Supervisors and the Lakeport City Council on Tuesday, he said the first tier of vaccinations would go to health care workers at Adventist Health Clear Lake Hospital and Sutter Lakeside Hospital, along with emergency medical services providers, which includes firefighters and paramedics.
Once all of those individuals are covered, the distribution will move to the second tier, which he said is expected to include outpatient workers, law enforcement and essential workers before moving on to those with chronic medical illness.
“The supply and demand don’t match very well in the beginning,” Pace told the council Tuesday.
He told Lake County News earlier this week that the county’s skilled nursing facilities will source the vaccine separately through pharmacies they’ve partnered with, and Lake County Tribal Health will receive a supply through the federal Indian Health Service.
Case and death rates continue to surge statewide
Pace told the supervisors that cases “continue to rise without any sign of slowing down” and that it was important for county leadership and community members to understand “what’s lying in front of us right now.”
California’s 58 Public Health departments reported a total of more than 50,000 cases on Wednesday and again on Thursday, nearly 400 deaths on Wednesday and almost 300 on Thursday.
Statewide, deaths have topped, 22,100 and total cases are at nearly 1.75 million.
Rural counties like Lake have seen climbing case numbers over the past month.
In Lake County, cases on Thursday totaled 1,375 with deaths at 21; an additional death in an out-of-county resident was incorrectly counted in Lake, Public Health said.
On Thursday, Public Health said 12 Lake County residents were hospitalized due to the virus.
Pace said that by Christmas, it’s estimated there will be no more intensive care beds available in California.
Sarah Marikos, Lake County Public Health’s epidemiologist, told the Board of Supervisors in a video report on Tuesday that Lake County’s daily case rate went from 6 per 100,000 in early October to 26 per 100,000 for the week ending Dec. 5, just a week after Thanksgiving, with the county’s positivity rate up to 11.5 percent at that point.
“Our numbers have never been this high,” she said.
In the previous three weeks, 400 new COVID-19 cases have come in, which account for one third of Lake County’s total caseload, Marikos said.
Hope for the new vaccine
Dr. Mollie Charon, who is contracting with Lake County Public Health to assist with infection prevention and public messaging, told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday that there have been numerous meetings to go over the technical details, safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Based on her study, she said she’s impressed by the vaccine’s safety record.
“It’s our job to worry so that the rest of the community doesn’t have to about these safety concerns,” Charon said, referring to the responsibilities she and Pace carry.
Charon said she has poured over information about vulnerable populations, and that she’s “so heartened and impressed” by the vaccine’s safety.
The quicker everyone can be immunized, the better it will be for businesses and families, Charon said.
She added that the vaccine offers a better chance that each person we want to spend the holidays with but can’t this year will be alive to spend the holidays with next year.
Charon said she’s very hopeful for a quick local rollout of the vaccine.
Pace told the Lakeport City Council that by spring and summer, people should be able to move back toward a normal life due to the vaccine and continued safety measures such as masking.
“This is going to be the potential way out,” he said of the vaccine, noting that safety concerns seem to be “pretty minimal,” while the risk of the illness that COVID-19 brings can be devastating.
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