As available staffed ICU beds in Santa Clara County dropped to around 10%, health officials gave an update Wednesday on how much COVID-19 vaccine the county expects to receive and who will be first in line.
Santa Clara County will not be able to vaccinate all of its estimated 130,000 health care workers from the first batch of shots it expects to get next week, according to Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county’s COVID-19 testing officer.
Fenstersheib told the Board of Supervisors Tuesday the county expects to receive about 17,500 doses of the Pfizer vaccine initially. A county spokesperson said the shipment should be enough to vaccinate about 8,775 people with the required two injections, administered within 21 days of each other.
The update to the supervisors included grim statistics: COVID-19 deaths in long-term care facilities account for about 44% of fatalities in the county. Officials plan to take some of the first batch of vaccine and give it to around 6,000 staff at skilled nursing facilities.
Fenstersheib said the federal government is working with pharmacy chains to vaccinate residents of those facilities.
The county next expects to receive around 39,000 doses of another vaccine, from Moderna, at a time yet to be determined.
Fenstersheib also said the state has asked Santa Clara County to help distribute 230 doses of the vaccine, which requires ultra-cold freezers, in rural San Benito County.
"Some of the smaller counties that can’t even manage to have the facilities to store even one of those minimum dose trays are going to be required to be supplied by some of the larger counties," Fenstersheib said.
Federal and state guidance puts front-line health care workers at the top of the list for early vaccination.
—Polly Stryker (@hamrashaar)