Santa Clara County marks another tough milestone in the number of COVID-19 cases

January 29, 2021

Almost a year has passed since Patricia Daud, who lives in San Jose, died of COVID-19 for the first time in the United States.

As of January 29, approximately 100,500 people in Santa Clara County have been diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the Public Health Service dashboard. About 1,344 counties have died of the disease.

“This is a very groundbreaking event that none of us wanted to see,” said Dr. Martifenstershake, COVID-19 inspector at the county.

Since Daud’s death on February 6, 2020 More than 433,000 Americans I died of illness.

Fenstersheib looks back on the county’s response over the past year.

“The fact that we were the first county to issue a stay-at-home order (and) a shelter-in-place order is likely to have prevented more deaths and more hospitalizations in this community,” Fenster said. Sheikh said. “Have you done better? Sure, all the communities could have done better, but with the information (and) knowledge so that our community can respond, be safe, and protect each other. The idea is that there is. “

Fenstersheib and Dr. Jennifer Tong, Associate Chief Medical Officer at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, emphasized that the county prioritizes fairness as vaccine distribution continues.

According to Fenster Shake, more than 80% of deaths from the disease are due to people over the age of 65.

“Because of the high mortality rate of older people, vaccination of older people in this community will greatly help prevent further deaths and hospitalizations,” Fenstershake said.

Approximately 28% of county residents over the age of 75 have been vaccinated at least once, and approximately 1 in 4 residents above their age threshold.

“Our system and the county as a whole have an infrastructure that is ready for further capacity expansion,” says Tong. “But we need the availability of more vaccines to expand our capabilities.”

The county will begin registering vaccine reservations over the phone next week.To date, most bookings have been made online and the county has given residents www.sccfreevax.org Go to sign up.

State health authorities announced this week Qualifications change, change based on age only After Phase 1B, Tier 1 is primarily targeted at people over the age of 65. According to state officials, the idea is to accelerate the distribution of vaccines in all 58 counties, increasing capacity while ensuring that vaccines reach imbalanced affected communities.

According to Fenstersheib, 8% of all county residents over the age of 16 receive at least one COVID-19 vaccine.

The Santa Clara County Health System began providing vaccines to residents aged 65 and over on January 27th.

Three California phases for vaccine distribution and eligibility are shown here, but they will soon change and are expected to change based solely on age.

Fenstersheib said there are many challenges to using vaccines as a weapon, but the county already has a “large and efficient” system in place.

Approximately 148,000 county residents received the first dose of the vaccine, and more than 37,000 residents received both.

“The infrastructure is ready to deliver the same amount of vaccine we receive,” said Fenster Sheikh. “The more vaccines we give to the county, the more (people) we can get vaccinated.”

However, there are not yet enough vaccines delivered weekly to the county to take advantage of its vaccination capacity, the leader said. Currently, about 6,600 vaccinations are given daily in the county, and about 60,000 vaccinations are planned for the next 7 days.

County earlier this month Announced ambitious goals for vaccination According to the county, by August 1, 85% of the eligible population at both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had an estimated 1.5 million or more eligible residents by that standard.

According to Fenstersheib, 13,000 to 15,000 counties need to be vaccinated per day to reach that goal.

“It’s still a goal,” Fenster Shake said. “I think the federal government is doing its best. I am confident that I can get enough vaccines and I look forward to it.”

Contact or follow Madelyn Reese at [email protected] @MadelynGReese On Twitter.