At Monday’s press conference, the state said it is working on clarifying guidelines so that providers know what to do in the event there are more COVID-19 vaccine doses than people available.The vaccines don’t arrive at a state facility, rather the distribution is directly to local providers—like hospitals and county health departments. Some counties are reporting instances of having extra doses. “When they open up a set of vials and they might have a dozen or two dozen doses left to give out — to make sure it’s clear who they can give them to — and really, to encourage the continued drumbeat of getting people vaccinated,” California Public Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said. The state has loose guidelines on what a provider should do in the event they have a surplus of doses. But added they are working on transparency to ensure extra doses don’t become an unfair opportunity. “We’re just looking at gross negligence,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “People that are skipping the line that know they shouldn’t be skipping the line. People taking care of people of means and influence, not the rest of us.”Sacramento County Department of Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye explained its clinics have had extra doses on a few occasions and already have backup measures in place to ensure it’s not wasted.“Especially with the Pfizer vaccine—if you take it out and mix it with the virulent you have to use it within six hours,” Dr. Kasirye said. “So, if you’re running a clinic and have a few doses remaining, you may just have a couple of hours that you can use that. So, that’s what we are using our waitlist for. That is also in addition to if, for example, we get to the end of the list for the tier. If we are able to schedule people for the next tier, we are able to do that as well. So, there are two ways of doing it.”Yolo County Department of Public Health also has measures in place. “We try to work with the sites that are getting vaccinated on how many doses they need,” spokesperson Jenny Tan said in an email. “Sometimes they do appointments or take a survey of staff so that they can somewhat calculate how many doses they’ll need. In the few instances there are extra doses, usually the vaccinators get the extra doses or the staff that are assisting with logistics so that none have gone to waste. This has not happened often, and we’ve had dozens of clinics/locations already.”
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
At Monday’s press conference, the state said it is working on clarifying guidelines so that providers know what to do in the event there are more COVID-19 vaccine doses than people available.
The vaccines don’t arrive at a state facility, rather the distribution is directly to local providers—like hospitals and county health departments.
Some counties are reporting instances of having extra doses.
“When they open up a set of vials and they might have a dozen or two dozen doses left to give out — to make sure it’s clear who they can give them to — and really, to encourage the continued drumbeat of getting people vaccinated,” California Public Health Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said.
The state has loose guidelines on what a provider should do in the event they have a surplus of doses. But added they are working on transparency to ensure extra doses don’t become an unfair opportunity.
“We’re just looking at gross negligence,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “People that are skipping the line that know they shouldn’t be skipping the line. People taking care of people of means and influence, not the rest of us.”
Sacramento County Department of Public Health Officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye explained its clinics have had extra doses on a few occasions and already have backup measures in place to ensure it’s not wasted.
“Especially with the Pfizer vaccine—if you take it out and mix it with the virulent you have to use it within six hours,” Dr. Kasirye said. “So, if you’re running a clinic and have a few doses remaining, you may just have a couple of hours that you can use that. So, that’s what we are using our waitlist for. That is also in addition to if, for example, we get to the end of the list for the tier. If we are able to schedule people for the next tier, we are able to do that as well. So, there are two ways of doing it.”
Yolo County Department of Public Health also has measures in place.
“We try to work with the sites that are getting vaccinated on how many doses they need,” spokesperson Jenny Tan said in an email. “Sometimes they do appointments or take a survey of staff so that they can somewhat calculate how many doses they’ll need. In the few instances there are extra doses, usually the vaccinators get the extra doses or the staff that are assisting with logistics so that none have gone to waste. This has not happened often, and we’ve had dozens of clinics/locations already.”