Agriculture, food, education, childcare, and counselors will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine next week. They join a list already made up of health professionals, long-term residents, and those 65 and older as local vaccination efforts continue to grow.
In addition, the distribution of vaccines in Kern County is being taken over by the state of California, changing procedures that have been in effect for the past few weeks.
Beginning Monday, individuals wishing to take advantage of the mass vaccination site at the Kern County Fairgrounds should visit myturn.ca.gov or call a state call center at 833-422-4255. Previously, Kern County’s public health services handled vaccine appointments at the fair grounds with the help of a local call center.
In a press conference on Friday, Kern County officials described the move as part of an overarching plan that will eventually include all vaccine distributors in California. Kern County is part of the first wave of counties to be added to the MyTurn system. While only the fair site will be included in the system next week, Brynn Carrigan, director of Kern County Public Health Services explained, appointments for all vaccines in the county will soon go through the website.
“Ultimately, all of our vaccination providers will be on MyTurn and it will be a one-stop shop for residents to see where there are available appointments and who is eligible,” she said. “All our providers won’t be on MyTurn next week, but they should be very soon.”
The county plans to call individuals who received the first dose of the vaccine at the fair between February 3 and Saturday to schedule the second dose. Those who do not receive a call within a week of the second dose to be administered should call 321-3000.
With the change in platform, there has been some confusion about whether or not people in the expanded eligibility categories can sign up for appointments. The public health services warned Friday that MyTurn was not yet allowing the expanded group of employees to sign up, a glitch that county officials hoped would be remedied soon.
The spread of vaccines has been watched with interest by residents of Kern County, hoping that life will return to normal soon. But delivery was hampered by a slow rollout, preventing many vaccine-candidates from signing up for appointments.
So far, Kern County has received 96,600 doses of vaccine, 93,097 of which have been administered to residents as of Friday morning. Carrigan said the number was too low because the doses administered by the county’s health department were still not reflected in the state data.
Core is in balance, with a stream of local suppliers begging for vaccination allocations to vaccinate our community, she said. the state.
Kern County now receives 1.6 percent of the state’s vaccination allocation, a figure that will rise to 2.9 percent next week. Still, at the current rate, it would take 11 weeks to vaccinate only those 65 and older.
“I understand there is a demand from our public for this vaccine,” Chief Administrative Officer Ryan Alsop said at the press conference. ‘We understand that many of you now want to get vaccinated. We have done our best to get this job done with the limited supply we have been given. “
He encouraged residents of Kern County to “stay there” while the county works to increase vaccine allocations.
But the problems have continued even as more and more doses are received. About 6,000 doses the province was supposed to receive last week were held up due to extreme weather in various parts of the country, delaying and canceling appointments.
You can reach Sam Morgen at 661-395-7415. You can also follow him on Twitter @smorgenTBC.