SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom released a slickly-produced video on Twitter, Wednesday, touting Cal Expo as an example of a drive-thru mass vaccination site already up and running.
He also announced anyone ages 65 and older was eligible to receive the vaccine. Yet, the glossy idea of future potential for California does not meet the present reality.
Sacramento County Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye explained the current state of Cal Expo.
"It's too soon to let people know about because it's not available to the general public," she said.
It doesn’t seem as though it will be available on a mass scale anytime in the near future either. ABC10 received a number of calls and messages from people in a variety of counties asking if they might be able to go to Cal Expo to receive the vaccine.
"People from other counties need to check with their county,” Dr. Kasirye said. “If they do work in Sacramento County and they are in phase 1A, then yes, they will get access to Cal Expo. But at this time, others outside of phase 1A and those who do not work and live in Sacramento will not be able to get access."
She explained vaccines are allocated to counties based on populations and every county is handling distribution a little differently. She also admits, right now, there’s just not enough vaccine available to ramp up scale at Cal Expo.
“Definitely once we get to that point, and we have gotten through some of our priority groups, and we’re able to open it up to the public, we will provide that information and we will make sure that everyone has access. But right now it is not accessible to the general public,” Dr. Kasirye said.
Dr. Kasirye said the Sacramento County Department of Health has also received many calls from people over 65 who now want their shot at the vaccine.
"We ask them to be patient because this announcement was made just yesterday,” she explained. “And so we're having to look at our strategy, our plan and see how to accommodate it. We will get there but right now we really need to get through phase 1A and right now we also need to get additional vaccine so we have more capacity to be able to reach everybody in that age group."
Dr. Kasirye also explained why pharmacies haven’t been returning calls.
"The reason they're not getting back to them is because they're also waiting to get additional vaccine," she said.
Dr. Kasirye said the goal in Sacramento is to finish Phase 1A by the end of January. Then move into the other phases in February or March. This means many people over 65 should set their expectations for a couple of months instead of a couple of weeks. However, as Dr. Kasirye admitted, it all depends on how much vaccine becomes available.
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