California will receive an additional 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the federal government this week as the state's rocky rollout to inoculate millions continues to draw criticism from residents and officials.
Gov. Gavin Newsom made the announcement Wednesday from the Oakland Coliseum, which will become a mass vaccination site later this month with the help of resources coming in from the Biden administration. The site is expected to open Feb. 16 and 6,000 doses could be administered daily once it's up and running, Newsom said. The state will open another site at California State University, Los Angeles, with plans for other potential sites around the state.
"The whole idea is to speed up the throughput, the efficiency and maintain an equitable lens in terms of the applications and distribution of the vaccine," Newsom said. "Equity is the call of this moment. The reason this site was chosen, was the framework of making sure that communities that are often left behind are not left behind and are prioritized in terms of the administration of these vaccines."
Community clinics in Sacramento County last week told CapRadio they were being slowed down by a lack of doses and were concerned Black and brown communities would be left behind — a trend that is starting to emerge in California.
While Newsom noted that the state has increased it's vaccination rates in recent weeks, California continues to lag behind other states as it attempts to vaccinate its nearly 40 million residents.
According to NPR, only 7.4% of Californians have received at least one shot, below the national rate of 8%. As of Feb. 2, the state has administered 3,543,817 doses of the vaccines, about 62% of its total, in line with national averages.
California's vaccine rollout has also caused confusion as state health officials continue to adjust who’s next in line for the shot. Just 31% of respondents in a UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll released this week gave the state’s coronavirus response high marks, compared to 43% who rated it poorly. The same poll found around half of Californians approve of Newsom's performance as a push to recall the governor gains support.
Right now, people over 65 are eligible for the vaccine, as are food and agricultural workers, educators, and law enforcement. The question of who’s next in line is where it gets tricky.
Newsom alarmed disability rights activists last week when he announced the state would prioritize age over people with underlying medical conditions or certain other high-risk jobs after they were originally included in the vaccine priority list.
State health officials confirmed to CapRadio Tuesday they had scrapped that plan. Newsom didn't provide information which age group will follow people 65 and older, and the old priority list was still on the state's vaccine website Wednesday morning.
The state also quietly announced a new vaccine information website called MyTurn, which is supposed to eventually connect Californians with vaccine appointments across the state. Currently, the service is a pilot that only works in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, though Newsom said Wednesday it could launch more broadly in the coming weeks.
While the vaccination rollout has been sluggish, the state has seen some positive trends in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations. New cases are down by half over the past two weeks, and hospitalizations are down 29% over that same time. Still, deaths remain near an all-time high as hospitals still struggle with cases originating during the holidays.