SACRAMENTO, Calif. — ABC10 is following the latest coronavirus statistics and vaccine news for the Sacramento region and the state of California.
This blog will be updated throughout the day with the latest COVID-19 news. Click HERE to learn when and where you can sign-up to get the coronavirus vaccine near you.
Federal program hopes to get COVID vaccine to 40,000 pharmacies
In a virtual California Medical Association seminar on Tuesday, White House Vaccinations Coordinator Dr. Bechara Choucair announced the initial stages of the federal pharmacy program will begin this week. Participating pharmacies will receive limited supplies of vaccines and eventually, he said the hope is to increase to 40,000 pharmacies nationwide.
“This will be a promising channel to get a lot more people vaccinated,” Choucair said.
Federally qualified community health centers will also begin to get direct vaccine shipments next week. This will be on top of doses they already receive through county allocations.
“This is part of our broader equity efforts that’s focused on the underserved and hardest hit populations,” Choucair explained.
Along with getting vaccines, the program will also include community vaccination centers, mobile units, along with efforts in building vaccine confidence. Choucair said the program will start with at least one health center in each state. As the program scales up, 1,385 centers across the country will receive doses.
Both programs, Choucair said, will take a phased approach and will ramp up as more vaccines become available. He stated that he was confident in the next three weeks as far as distributions go, but it was unclear how many doses would come to states after that.
“We’re purchasing a total of 600 million doses of the vaccine and that we’ll get those sometime before the end of the summer,” explained Choucair. “We know there’s a lot of work still to do and as soon as we get more confidence in the supply, we are sharing that publicly.”
Cal Expo is providing 700 vaccinations a day, Sacramento public health says
Sacramento County Public Health [SCPH] is giving about 700 vaccinations a day at Cal Expo for the Phase 1A tier.
SCPH says they allocated between 13,000 to 15,000 vaccine doses to sites like Cal Expo and to hospitals and clinics.
Those who qualify for the vaccine in Phase 1A are frontline workers that include doctors, healthcare staff, correctional health staff, firefighters and long-term care facility workers, and those who are over the age of 65.
Phase 1B includes workers that are in education, childcare emergency services, and food and agriculture. SCPH is planning on expanding to the 1B tier in the next couple of weeks but that would depend on vaccine supply.
State releases latest COVID-19 statistics
On Tuesday, the state of California announced a state total of 3,354,591 confirmed cases of COVID-19. There were also 327 deaths reported, bringing the total up to 44,477 deaths. The state also reported 4,914,630 vaccine doses have been administered of the 6,438,225 doses in California.
The state has vaccinated roughly 67% of its supply of 7.4 million doses while it awaits 7.6 million vaccine doses to arrive in the state's supply.
Governor announces positive COVID-19 statistics
During a press conference at Levi Stadium in the Bay Area where the home of the San Francisco 49ers is being turned into a mass vaccination site, Gov. Newsom provided a positive update as the state continues to battle the coronavirus.
Sacramento Libraries reopening
Twenty one Sacramento Public Library locations are set to reopen on today, Tuesday, Feb. 9, following an extended closure to the public. Curbside service will continue at all 26 library locations.
Three locations - Valley Hi-North Laguna, Elk Grove and North Natomas - will stay closed for system mantenance.
California uses ZIP codes, outreach to boost vaccine equity
Counties in California and other places in the U.S. are trying to ensure they vaccinate people in largely Black, Latino and working-class communities that have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic.
San Francisco is reserving some vaccines for seniors in the two ZIP codes hit hardest by the pandemic. In Southern California, Riverside County has partnered with an immigrant advocacy group to vaccinate farmworkers.
Nationwide, states are struggling to distribute vaccines equitably even as officials try to define what equity means. Officials are debating what risk factors gets someone to the head of the line: those in poverty, communities of color, the work they do or if they have a disability.
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