SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — Californians are still waiting to hear guidance from the CDC on what fully vaccinated people across the country are advised to do, like travel or attend small gatherings without wearing masks.
In the meantime, a thousand more people from Sacramento County got their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine at a clinic set up at Cristo Rey High School on Saturday.
The clinic was set up through a partnership with Sacramento County, Dignity Health and UC Davis, focusing on the community's most vulnerable populations.
"This is like Christmas and my birthday and the birth of my children all rolled into one!" Rita Spillane, 66, said moments after receiving her second dose of the Moderna vaccine.
Spillane's first order of business after being fully vaccinated, visiting a new grandbaby in Colorado.
"We've already booked our flights on Southwest to go back and see them after April," she said.
Ranbir Singh took his father to get the second dose of the vaccine on Saturday too.
"Actually want to travel, (we) want to go to India!" Singh said.
For his father, Sukhmander Heer, India might still be a ways away. For now, he's just ready to get back to his daily walking routine.
"After a week or ten days, I will start again, walking is my hobby," Heer said.
This partnership targets the community's most underserved populations that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, specifically doing outreach to Latinos, African Americans, Asian Pacific Islanders and Indigenous communities.
"Part of the Dignity mission is reaching out to the patients that are marginalized or haven't been able to have access to care in the most poor of our society and so this is really exciting to see these efforts," Dr. Cecilia Divin, a physician with Mercy Medical Group said.
Now that a thousand more people are fully vaccinated, Divin reminds patients that they're not in the clear just yet.
"It's still important to hand wash, practice hygiene and social distance and the reason for that is that because this is new, we still don't know if you can transmit the virus," she said.
And hospital officials say because of this, the community is making progress.
"We were probably three to four weeks ago, seeing our numbers of 200 patients in our six hospitals in the area, and we're down into the '40s in the local area and so that tells me, that it's working," Will Owens, a clinic volunteer and Vice President of Human Resources for Dignity Health in the Greater Sacramento region said.
This partnership will continue to focus on second-dose clinics for the next couple of weeks, they will go back to first dose clinics as the supply becomes available.
