Santa Clara County residents 65 and older can now get vaccinated for COVID-19 at any health care provider or vaccination site, regardless of their health insurance, county officials announced Thursday.
That means someone insured by Kaiser Permanente can make appointments at the county clinics or an individual with Medi-Cal can go to Sutter Health, for example.
"There is no wrong door," County Health Officer Dr. Sara Cody said. "Everyone who lives in our county who is 65 years and older ... can come to any of the health systems."
The "no wrong door" system was implemented in an effort to streamline vaccination for residents most vulnerable and to ensure equal and easy access, Cody said.
"Given limited supply of vaccine and the continuing high rates of COVID-19, we must prioritize vaccinating those at greatest risk of death or serious illness," Cody said.
Because people 65 and older make up 81 percent of the COVID-19 death toll, they are considered the most vulnerable, Cody said.
The change in policy comes after news that large multicounty health care providers have had to cancel appointments because of vaccine shortages.
For example, Kaiser Permanente said it was forced to cancel more than 5,000 vaccination appointments scheduled from Jan. 29 to Feb. 5.
That cancellations coupled with the state's "complex vaccine distribution" and allocation system, has resulted in "uneven" vaccine rollout, County Executive Jeff Smith said.
"The state has been focused on distributing vaccine in smaller amounts to various agencies, and it's become obvious that the amounts going to Kaiser and [Palo Alto Medical Foundation, which is Sutter Health] are inadequate to care for their patients."
Those two providers insure half the county's population.
The county's vaccine supply is currently enough to last about two to three weeks, Smith said. So far, 37% of the county's 75-and-over population and 24% of its 65-and-over population have been vaccinated.
"So, we still have a long ways to go and we clearly do not have enough vaccine on hand to get there," Smith said. "But we have assurances from the feds and from the state that the vaccine numbers will be increasing by at least 20%."
Smith also noted that the state is working on a new vaccine distribution plan that would provide Santa Clara County with 6,000 vaccine doses delivered daily Monday through Friday and 1,000 on Saturday and Sunday.
With three mass vaccination centers, several county clinics, private health care providers and centers like the Mexican Heritage Community Center in hard-hit communities like East San Jose, Smith is confident the county has the infrastructure to support fast and substantial vaccination.
Eligible residents can make appointments through the county's website at sccfreevax.org or by calling the Valley Connection Call Center at (408) 970-2000.
The Call Center is open Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and assistance is available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and other languages.
To track COVID-19 vaccinations in the county, people can visit its COVID-19 Vaccine Dashboard for daily updates.
—Jana Kadah, Bay City News