Vaccination clinic begins at Merced College. Active COVID cases fall, but concerns remain
The first of a three-day mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic kicked off at Merced College on Tuesday — aiming to administer close to 2,500 Pfizer vaccines in the school’s gymnasium.
Dignity Health, UC Merced, University of California Health and Merced County worked together to make the clinic happen on short notice.
“It’s really become this joint effort of all these entities coming together to support this community,” said Jill Cunningham, associate vice president of external relations for Merced College.
“It’s really an incredible thing to see, but it came about quickly and we’ve been able to I think make this seamless and pretty turnkey, and it’s our hope that we can continue to do these types of clinics throughout the summer and to get this county vaccinated and up and running.”
First responders from Merced County — including paramedics, EMTs and nurses — helped out at the clinic. Student’s from the college’s nursing program also contributed their efforts.
Appointment times for all three days filled up in a matter of minutes over the weekend, after the clinic was announced Friday.
“People want it,” said Merced County Supervisor Daron McDaniel. “It’s just been a matter of us acquiring it. We don’t have to convince people to get the vaccine. The problem is getting the vaccine so we can give it to these folks.”
Merced County Board of Supervisors and public health officials on Tuesday again voiced their displeasure over the level of vaccines coming into Merced County from the state. They say San Joaquin Valley counties like Merced are far from getting their fair share of vaccines.
Merced County has the third lowest number of vaccine doses per capita in the state, county officials said. Meanwhile, the county’s COVID-19 deaths per capita are among the highest in California.
“I was sort of under the assumption of what’s the problem, what’s the hold up? Why aren’t we getting vaccines? Now that I’ve been working with the county and closely,” Cunningham said.
“I understand there’s a lot of people working really hard to get us vaccines and get vaccines brought into this community and it hasn’t been easy.”
The doses being administered at Merced College this week were made available through Dignity Health and UC Health. But they don’t count toward the allocated vaccines given to Merced County from the state.
“Merced County has to shake some trees to get its fruit,” McDaniel said. “We have to shake every tree in the state to get our fruit.”
Cunningham said Merced College hopes to hold more vaccination clinics throughout the summer if possible.
New cases decrease, but data still concerning
Following a statewide trend, Merced County has been seeing an encouraging downturn in some aspects of the virus.
For example, active cases have decreased by about 43% since County Public Health’s COVID-19 update two weeks ago. Still, fatalities among residents age 64 or older have increased by 18% during the past 14 days, County Public Health data showed.
On Tuesday, Merced County Department of Public Health reported no new COVID-19 related deaths. The total of deaths remained at 367 since the start of the pandemic.
There were 85 new cases reported on Tuesday, bringing the total number of cases to 27,509 residents who have been infected with the virus since the start of the pandemic.
There are currently 1,766 Merced County residents estimated to be actively infected — a drop of 83 cases since Monday.
The number of residents hospitalized in Merced County due to the virus is 37 — an decrease of two cases since Monday — with 17 people in the ICU.
According to the state, Merced County hospitals had four ICU beds remaining as of Monday.
Merced County currently has a positivity rate of 9.8%, meaning the level of people among those who’ve been tested who had a positive result. That’s a decrease from 11% a week ago.
Around the Valley
Tuesday’s coronavirus updates from counties in the central San Joaquin Valley included:
Fresno County: 246 new cases, 91,430 to date; Four additional deaths, 1,258 to date.
Stanislaus County: 230 new cases, 48,094 to date. Seven additional deaths, 874 to date.
Kings County: 45 new cases, 21,342 to date; two additional deaths, 199 to date. Nearly 7,100 of the cases in Kings County, and 17 deaths, have been among inmates at state prisons in Avenal and Corcoran.
Madera County: 25 new cases, 14,857 to date; five new deaths, 189 to date.
Mariposa County: No new cases, 380 to date; no additional deaths, five to date.
Tulare County: 249 new cases, 46,382 to date; 10 additional deaths, 661 to date.
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 6:40 PM.
