‘We will roll up our sleeves, get to work.’ Merced County opens COVID vaccination clinics
The Merced County Department of Public Health opened up COVID-19 vaccination distribution clinics this week, as new cases meanwhile continue to surge throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
The first public clinic was held Wednesday at the Merced County Fairgrounds. Another is scheduled for Thursday at the Los Banos County Fairgrounds, with a third scheduled back at the Merced County Fairgrounds on Friday.
The clinics are by appointment only. Registration can be done through the county’s newly launched website (vaccinatemercedcounty.com).
Still, demand is high and appointments are limited. County officials said on Sunday they were booked for this week, just hours after the first announcement was made.
Additional vaccination sites and plans will be activated as more of the vaccine becomes available.
People who don’t have access to a computer can call the health department information line at 209-381-1180 for information on vaccines.
Health care workers and others in the Phase IA priority group can receive a vaccination now.
“Our clinics are focused solely on those in the categories that can be vaccinated,” said Department of Public Health Director Rebecca Nanyonjo-Kemp.. “We will roll up our sleeves and get to work and try to get as large a percentage of individuals within that phase completed so that we start working toward a percent of community as a whole.”
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Kemp said she was pleased with the first day of the clinic in Merced on Wednesday.
She said the small allocation of vaccines given to Merced County by the state is preventing her department from handing out doses as quickly as they’d like.
Merced County received just over 6,000 vaccine doses from the state. Kemp expects to go through all those vaccines this week.
“In comparison, when you look at the population for what we’ve been allocated from the state of California versus our other counties throughout the state and we fare second worst and that’s unfortunate because our rate right now is relatively low,” Kemp said.
Concerns about low allocation from state
Kemp says the goal is to offer all 287,420 Merced County residents an opportunity to receive the vaccine. But county officials say that won’t happen very quickly based off the current allocation for the county.
“We have vulnerable populations and our death rate is also substantially higher in Merced County than other counties, so we’re very concerned about getting this into as many arms as possible,” Kemp said.
“While we have those systems in place — what is going to allow us to graduate from the strategy to the operation — is getting the vaccine so we can get people to work and shots in arms.”
Merced County reported eight more COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total to 316 since the start of the pandemic.
The county had 540 doses of the vaccination available for distribution on Tuesday.
Kemp believes the amount of vaccines that will become available may increase in the coming weeks.
“Nobody every wants to touch politics, but in the world of public health, those administrations or those who place a premium on public health, you’ll find that the rollout is a bit different,” she said.
“So with today, I”m sure in the state of California, the next two weeks are going to look like a very different rollout than has been the case for the last two months.
“We have been told to be prepared to ramp up and this county is doing its darnedest to make sure we’re prepared should those floodgates open with vaccine reserve,” she added.
Kemp says their goal is get as many vaccines out to as many people as they can, as fast as they can.
“Our reasonable goal is several months and not several years from now getting our entire community vaccinated, At least every person in this community having an option to to receive the vaccine,” Kemp said. “We’re not there yet. We’re far from it.”
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 7:39 AM.
