SANTA CLARA COUNTY, Calif. (KRON) -- Questions surround the COVID vaccine and when the supply will finally meet the current demand, but unfortunately there is still no clear answer.
But Dr. Anthony Fauci is sounding a little more optimistic as vaccination sites are anticipating more supplies.
About 200 people got the shot at the county's newest pop-up vaccination site off Story Road in east San Jose. While the number of people vaccinated is rising, slowly but surely, demand for the vaccine is still far outstripping supply, says Deputy Health Director Dr. Rocio Luna.
"Right now our allocation is on average about 40,000 doses and we run about 5 to 6,000 a day," Dr. Luna said. "And our hope is to run up to as much as possible with our pop ups and our mass vaccination sites and our stationary sites, our clinic-based sites."
The recent decision to make all county residents 65 and over eligible for the shot regardless of their health care providers has further increased demand but officials could not say by exactly how much.
Sounding a more optimistic note about the pace of vaccinations is the Biden administrations chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who says by late March or April it could be in his words "open season" for everyone to receive shots.
If and when Dr. Fauci's optimism is born out, mass vaccination sites like Levi's Stadium, the largest in California, has the potential to vaccinate up to 15,000 people daily.
Until there is more vaccine, the county will continue to service smaller, existing vaccination sites while at the same time opening pop up clinics like one in hard hit zip codes in east San Jose, Gilroy and wherever the vaccine is needed most.
"We are definitely building capacity every day, we are reenforcing that capacity," Dr. Luna said. "We're definitely working to ensure we're ready and that we're surging so we can meet the demand as much as we can possibly meet the demand."
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/3aS18Ag
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