COVID-19 vaccines are coming to SLO County. Who gets them first?
San Luis Obispo County will be getting its first coronavirus vaccines as soon as next week, but most residents won’t be getting shots for months.
At the county Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday and a news conference Wednesday, county Health Officer Dr. Penny Borenstein said that San Luis Obispo County will receive 1,950 doses of the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for distribution.
The first arrival of immunizations will be administered to health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities who have been determined to have the highest need for protection.
About 17,000 county residents fall into those two groups, according to Borenstein.
The initial set of nearly 2,000 vaccines is “just a small portion of what’s needed,” Borenstein told the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. “We still have a ways to go with vaccinating that first set of priority groups.”
The county has deep freezers to be able to store the vaccines, she said.
San Luis Obispo County Administrative Officer Wade Horton had “the foresight for planning to us to purchase deep freezers even at a time when the state and federal government said don’t go out and buy those,” Borenstein told supervisors. “Now, there’s a bit of a challenge in getting them. As we have been forward leaning in all things in this pandemic, we are also ready to receive vaccinations.”
Who will get SLO County COVID-19 vaccines first?
After local hospital employees, emergency medical technicians and other health care professionals are vaccinated for coronavirus, along with long-term care patients, the county will turn its attention to immunizing the next group of residents.
“We are hopeful that in the months of February, March and April ... we will get allocations to be able to move forward with the second tier of individuals, who are vulnerable by virtue of age and medical condition, as well as covering all of our critical workforce in a variety of different sectors,” Borenstein said Tuesday.
Examples of that second tier might include dentists and other medical industry professionals who don’t treat coronavirus cases, as well as grocery store and retail employees, Borenstein said, but those decisions would still need to be vetted through national and state public health guidance, as well as data.
According to Borenstein, San Luis Obispo County residents who don’t belong to vulnerable groups likely won’t be getting COVID-19 vaccines until late spring or summer.
State and national guidance will inform the county on which groups get the vaccines as they become available.
A community task force — to be comprised of 30 to 35 people from various sectors including health, business and minority groups — will help get out messaging on the vaccine, as well as address decisions around the distribution rollout process.
“We look to that group (the task force) to help with decision-making as well as messaging,” Borenstein told county supervisors. “We are very much aware that a portion of the population are skeptical about the vaccine.”
When will skilled nursing facility residents get immunized?
Skilled nursing facility residents could be receiving coronavirus vaccines as soon as the last week of December, according to Darren Smith, the CEO of Compass Health, Inc.
Compass Health operates all six skilled nursing facilities in San Luis Obispo County.
Although the county will receive just under 2,000 doses, local skilled nursing facilities will have access to COVID-19 vaccines through a federal government program, not through the county, Smith wrote in an email to The Tribune.
“As we understand, the federal government vaccine allocation for this program will be separate from the vaccines being sent directly to the county or other healthcare providers,” Smith wrote.
The program Smith referred to is a partnership between the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and several chain pharmacies, including CVS and Walgreens. The partnership is a part of Operation Warp Speed, the government’s strategy to accelerate the vaccine process, and to begin distributing the vaccine prior to 2021.
Smith said Compass Health registered for the program in late October. Vaccinations are expected to come in the last week of December or first week of January, he said.
Smith said the vaccines will be offered to all staff and residents at Compass Health facilities.
“Compass Health, Inc. welcomes the COVID-19 vaccine,” Smith wrote. “We will offer it to all residents and staff and hope all participate.”
Compass Health was told they would receive enough vaccines to cover both residents and staff. Should that not be the case, Smith said residents would be offered the vaccine first, then the most vulnerable staff.
A Compass Health representative was invited to be a part of the county Public Health Department’s vaccination task force, according to Smith.
Public health officer: Vaccines needed to keep community safe
Although the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is the first to be distributed in San Luis Obispo, other manufactures are expected to release their own coronavirus vaccines in coming months.
Borenstein said that COVID-19 vaccines under testing go through full clinical trials and won’t be issued until they’re deemed safe and effective.
People who have already contracted COVID-19 and have since recovered from the virus should still get vaccinated in coming months because they still could be susceptible, Borenstein said Tuesday, adding that immunization wouldn’t have any adverse effects.
“I’ve been asked many times ‘Would you take it?’ and my answer is ‘Yes’ when my time comes, based on what my sector is,” she said. “This isn’t a political rollout of this vaccine.”
Borenstein cited the recent coronavirus-related death of a San Luis Obispo County resident in their 50s who didn’t any underlying health conditions to illustrate that the virus can be lethal to everyone, not just people who are considered vulnerable.
“When we hear those kinds of situations, it gets your attention a little bit more than someone who has significant underlying conditions and is in their 90s,” Borenstein said Wednesday. “That’s a much more likely outcome than someone in their 50s without disease, but it’s been happening everywhere in this pandemic and it’s happening here now.”
This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
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