California hospital preparing for first vaccination

Sacramento, CA (AP) — Hope glimpses as California reported on Friday a record of nearly 35,500 coronavirus-positive cases. The state is waiting for the first batch of coronavirus vaccine and will distribute it to hospitals for inoculation to health care workers. The forefront of pandemics.

The state plans to receive 327,000 Pfizer vaccines by early next week. The county has specific allocations distributed to hospitals that the California Public Health Service has determined are capable of servicing the high-risk medical population and promptly immunizing people. there is.

Dose wrestles with spiral numbers of COVID-19 cases, resulting in spikes in hospitalizations and recorded deaths. To save time, Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration has imposed a stay-at-home order on most of the state due to the reduced capacity of intensive care units.

Authorities said federal regulators expected more doses to arrive when they reviewed the Modana vaccine next week. They said other manufacturers could follow and increase the amount of vaccine available in the state in 2021.

The previous plans for COVID-19 vaccination in California are as follows:

When will the vaccine arrive?

“I ask that question every day. When is the drop date?” Said Dr. Wraith Vola, Interim Health Officer in Fresno County. “I don’t think everyone is really confident about the exact date.”

The initial dose of Pfizer’s vaccine will be shipped as soon as it is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. This decision is scheduled for at least this weekend. A consortium of western states, including California, has formed its own safety committee, which conducts its own reviews in parallel with the FDA’s review, and can give final approval as soon as the FDA acts.

In that case, the question is how quickly the vials can be shipped nationwide from the company’s warehouse in Kalamazoo, Michigan. The dose is packed in 16 x 16 x 24 inch (41 x 41-) dry ice. A 61 cm cardboard shipping box called a “pizza box”.

The heat-retaining container can maintain its dose for up to 10 days at a recommended storage temperature of approximately -70 ° C when unopened. The University of California, Davis, which operates a medical center in Sacramento, said it would move the vaccine to a freezer about the size of a large residential refrigerator that keeps the vaccine at -80 ° C (-112 ° F). The freezer is large enough to hold a vial containing a 150,000 dose, and more are in progress. Each 2 ml vial contains 5 doses of vaccine. The vaccine should be reconstituted and injected within 48 hours of thawing.

Elizabeth Fernandez, a hospital spokeswoman at the University of California, San Francisco, said the first shipment would arrive on Tuesday and could be administered on Wednesday.

How are the doses distributed?

The initial dose will be distributed to hospitals that can demonstrate their ability to safely store and administer the vaccine according to Pfizer guidelines. In Los Angeles County, nine sites with ultra-low temperature freezers that can store Pfizer vaccines will receive the first allocation, Simon said.

Dr. Clayton Chau, a public health officer at Orange County, said the hospital must also prove that it plans to distribute all doses within five days. Santa Clara County said in a statement that vaccines must be stored at low and ultra-low temperatures, so distribution should be careful.

Many of the details were still under consideration with the county health agency, hospital officials said Friday.

Who will receive the first dose?

Federal authorities and the state community vaccine committee have detailed a list of vaccine priorities, with healthcare professionals at highest risk of exposure to the virus. Chow said it could include staff in the emergency and intensive care units.

“Local hospitals need to determine which segment of the workforce is at high risk of being infected by the virus because of this limited amount,” he said.

For example, at the University of California, Davis, a working group of infectious disease experts spent weeks deciding on a hierarchy based on employee risk from the coronavirus. It settled on emergency department management workers, doctors, nurses, first responders, and clerks as the top layer to receive the first dose. Hospitals are ready to vaccinate as many as 400 employees daily, depending on vaccine availability and other factors.

According to Pamala Wu, a spokeswoman for the University of California, Davis, which hospital in California will be vaccinated first depends on logistics, such as a delivery hub through which boxes pass on the way from Pfizer. Each hospital then determines how long it will take to begin managing shots. “We decided to start managing the box as soon as we received it, such as within two hours of receiving it,” Wu said.

Fernandez of the University of California, San Francisco, said the hospital has not yet decided which health care workers will be vaccinated first. First, the hospital receives 975 doses, but much more can be stored in two ultra-low freezers, each capable of holding up to 600,000 doses. “We have enough storage capacity,” she said.

The first dose of these vaccines goes only to hospitals for healthcare professionals. Subsequent doses will be secured not only for healthcare professionals, but also for residents and workers in care and skilled nursing facilities who can expect to receive the vaccine through local pharmacies, according to Chau. I will.

Dr. Erica Pan, Deputy Public Health Officer of the State, said key workers, including teachers and school staff, would be one of the next groups to prioritize vaccination. The general public can be expected to be vaccinated in the spring and summer, Chau said.

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A taxi reported by Orange County. Associated Press writers Janie Har and Jocelyn Gecker of San Francisco contributed to this report.