Coronavirus update: Vaccinations in Fresno-area counties lagging well behind most of state

California will get about 77,000 more doses of coronavirus vaccine than it did the past two weeks, a 16% increase in line with President Joe Biden’s plan to increase supply to states to 10 million from 8.6 million.

The state in coming weeks and months also will get more notice on the number of doses to be delivered, so that officials can better plan and administer the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines approved for use.

That should help counties in the San Joaquin Valley, several of which are lagging behind others with comparable populations across the state.

Fresno County this week had to pause vaccination sites at the Fresno Fairgrounds and the Sierra Pacific Orthopedic Center due to a lack of supply allocated by the state. The fairgrounds site had been providing about 1,500 vaccinations a day to health care workers and seniors 75 and older.

Fresno County had administered 61,392 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through Wednesday, according to the California Department of Public Health. At 8,553.8 doses per 100,000 residents 18 years of age and older, that is the highest in the central San Joaquin valley.

Stanislaus County had administered 31,617 doses of vaccine, 7,847.6 per 100,000 residents 18 years of age and older.

Elsewhere …

Sacramento: 88,976 doses, or 7,485.7 per 100,000.

Tulare: 21,753 doses, or 6,715.1 per 100,000.

Madera: 7,115 doses, 6,231.0 per 100,000.

San Joaquin: 34,491 doses, 6,176.9 per 100,000.

Merced: 8,594 doses, or 4,364.7 per 100,000.

Kern: 32,191 doses, or 5,021.4 per 100,000.

Kings: 4,263 doses, or 3,820.0 per 100,000.

Contra Costa County, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau statistics has a population of 894,142 age 18 or older, about 180,000 more than Fresno County, has vaccinated 11,315.4 per 100,000. San Mateo County, about 100,000 less than Fresno County, had administered doses of coronavirus vaccine to 10,335.1 per 100,000.

There have been 2,730,262 doses of vaccine administered in the state. Of the 5.5 million doses delivered to the state, 50.1% have been used, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker. Also, 5.5% of the population in California has received at least one dose of vaccine and just 1.1% have been fully vaccinated.

Fresno County’s record death toll

Fresno County reported 38 new COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, its total now 1,122.

January has been the mostly deadly month since the start of the pandemic, and it comes after the coronavirus claimed more lives in the county than nearly every other cause of death in 2020.

The six-county region of Fresno, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced and Tulare counties reported 663 new COVID-19 cases and 55 deaths. It is closing in on 2,500 deaths, with 2,364.

A breakdown of the latest data from the counties …

Fresno County

• 337 new cases; 86,673 total
• 38 new deaths; 1,122 total

Kings

• 53 new cases; 20,276 total
• 0 new deaths; 161 total

Madera

• 76 new cases; 14,080 total
• 0 new deaths; 175 total

Mariposa

• 1 new case; 358 total
• 0 new deaths; 5 total

Merced

• 91 new cases; 25,824 total
• 7 new deaths; 339 total

Tulare

• 105 new cases; 44,035 total
• 10 new deaths; 562 total

Blue Shield picked to manage vaccination process

Blue Shield of California will be the outside administrator charged with maximizing the speed COVID-19 vaccines are made available across the state, overseeing distribution to counties, pharmacies and private healthcare providers with a focus on disparately affected communities.

Gov. Gavin Newsom had said on Tuesday that the state would contract with a third-party administrator to determine where and when the state’s supply of vaccines coming from the federal government should go.

“Our state and county public health leaders have done the important groundwork to get California’s vaccination plan up and running and we are grateful to them and will continue to partner with them,” Newsom said.

“We have learned that to accelerate pace we need to dial up the scale of our efforts to ensure vaccine supply goes into arms as quickly as it arrives in the state.”

The health insurance company will manage the flow of requests from and deliveries to counties across the state, which will be moving to an age-based eligibility system once through an initial phase vaccinating seniors 65 and older, health care and emergency services employees, food and agriculture workers, teachers and school staff.

Vaccinations will be available at a variety of locations including pharmacies, health centers and temporary pop-up locations.

U.S. deaths continue to climb

The number of coronavirus-related deaths across the country went up for a third day in a row with 4,077 bringing the total to 429,202, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

There are 25,598,359 cases in the U.S., according to the CSSE.

This story was originally published January 28, 2021 at 7:02 AM.