Who is eligible for COVID vaccinations in the Fresno area? Here’s what you need to know
Senior citizens ages 65 and older are now at the front of the line to receive a vaccination against COVID-19.
Still, a growing number of options – combined with the continued scarcity of doses and an ongoing emphasis on online registration for appointments – is creating confusion for people about where and how to get their shots.
When the first shipments of vaccines arrived in Fresno County in mid-December, doses were earmarked for frontline health care workers. That includes doctors, nurses, and other staff in hospitals who are most likely to come into contact with coronavirus patients.
In January, however, federal and state officials announced that senior citizens were eligible to get their shots.
But the supply of the vaccines – which require two separate doses injected three or four weeks apart to provide full protection – has not kept up with demand. The 132,000 doses that the county has received over the past two months would, if divided evenly among first and second shots, be enough for about 66,000 people.
By contrast, Fresno County has almost 126,000 people who are age 65 and older, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates.
And that’s a population that’s less likely to have computer access or be adept at navigating a process that has focused on using the internet to sign up for shots rather than calling for appointments.
About 25,000 senior citizens in Fresno County went online on the county’s website to fill out a form saying they wanted the vaccine, said Joe Prado, community health division manager for the Fresno County Department of Public Health.
“We know that’s not all the people in the age groups who want the vaccine, that’s just who filled out the form,” Prado said last week. “We know there are more people out there. … If it were just the 20,000 or so, we could do those in two weeks and move on” to the next eligibility group on the state and county priority schedule.
As more vaccine doses slowly become available, more sites are opening up on a constantly changing basis to give shots to seniors – many with their own process for making appointments, adding to the confusion.
“I don’t know where to go or what to do,” said Guadalupe Peterson, 90, of Fresno. “This virus is mutating, and I want to get my shot before it gets out of hand.”
Peterson said she has “zero” experience using computers or the internet, so she is reliant on using a telephone to try to make an appointment. That’s a problem when the county, the state and most providers want people to register online. “You’d think they’d have this a little more streamlined,” she said.
Of about 1,300 people in Fresno County who have died from COVID-19 in less than a year, nearly three-quarters of the victims have been 65 years or older.
Who’s giving shots for seniors?
The county health department is offering appointments for senior citizens, based on its supplies of vaccine, at a mass vaccination site at the Fresno Fairgrounds in southeast Fresno. Other large-scale sites include Sierra Pacific Orthopedic Center in northeast Fresno and a drive-through clinic operated by United Health Centers at Central High School’s east campus in northeast Fresno.
A complete list of vaccine sites, as well as phone numbers or registration links, is available on the county’s website.
New sites are also opening each week as doses become available, all following the state’s priority list that currently limits vaccinations to ages 65 and up. Fresno County is operating mobile clinics for seniors in rural communities, and a new site is expected to start giving shots later this week at Gaston Middle School in southwest Fresno.
The county is also allocating some of its precious supply of vaccine to an OptumServe site at Reedley College in Reedley. OptumServe has been doing coronavirus testing for months and will now start offering shots to eligible seniors.
CVS and Rite Aid, two national pharmacy chains with stores in the Valley, are now receiving limited allocations of doses directly from the federal government to provide shots. Those same two companies are also tasked with making the rounds of nursing homes to give shots to residents and staff in those facilities.
Fresno County is still waiting to hear if the Federal Emergency Management Agency and state Office of Emergency Services will establish a separate mass vaccination site, possibly at the Save Mart Center in northeast Fresno, that will operate independently of the county’s own sites.
How do I get an appointment?
For the county’s mass-vaccination site at the Fresno Fairgrounds, or for any county-run mobile or community clinics, Fresno County is now scheduling through the state’s MyTurn system, which relies mostly on online registration to set up an appointment.
People who don’t have internet access can call MyTurn at 833-422-4255 for help signing up based on their eligibility. More information about MyTurn is on the county’s website at www.fcdph.org/covid19vax.
The Fresno County Department of Public Health also has a list of other medical practices, clinics and others who are offering shots. That list is available online at www.co.fresno.ca.us/Home/ShowDocument?id=52599. The list currently includes locations in Fresno, Clovis, Coalinga, Fowler, Huron, Kerman, Mendota, Orange Cove, Parlier, Reedley, Riverdale, Sanger and Selma.
Once the OptumServe site at Reedley College is active and operational, people can create an account and register for an appointment online at myoptumserve.com/start.
CVS and Rite Aid have also started providing shots, but neither national chain is releasing a list of specific store locations.
CVS is only doing vaccinations by appointment, registered either through the company’s website at www.cvs.com/immunizations/covid-19-vaccine or on the CVS mobile app. People who don’t have online access can call the company’s customer service number at 800-746-7287.
Rite Aid is also doing vaccinations only by appointment. A company spokesperson said registration will be through individual county websites, but Rite Aid does have information on eligibility and scheduling on its website at www.riteaid.com/Covid-19.
Sierra Pacific Orthopedic Center has partnered with the county providing thousands of doses of vaccines first to health workers and then seniors at its drive-through clinic in northeast Fresno. Richard Lembo, director of sports medicine, said the practice has been working on plans to launch mobile coronavirus vaccine efforts for outlying foothill and mountain communities like Prather, Shaver Lake and Auberry, possibly by early March.
Not all are challenged
While many seniors have expressed frustration with the online process – either because of a lack of expertise using the internet or repeatedly finding that no appointment slots were available – others have reported a smooth experience.
Fresno resident Cliff Lloyd, 66, received the second dose in his two-shot regimen last week. A real estate professional by trade, he said he had no problem going online through the county’s website to make his appointment at the fairgrounds once he learned that vaccines were available to people over the age of 65.
“I couldn’t have had an easier time if I’d planned it,” Lloyd said. “I innocently went on the county website, signed up and got an appointment just as smooth as silk.”
He described a sense of relief after getting the second shot. “You’re not paranoid anymore; it’s a tremendous load off your mind,” Lloyd said. “Now I know I can have listing appointments and tell people that I’m protected, and that makes them more secure.”
“But there’s also a feeling of knowing that there are so many people who really need (the vaccine) and can’t get it,” he added. “I wish they could just open it up to everyone.”
The challenges of the vaccine rollout also reveal, like so much during this pandemic, deeper issues around seniors’ computer literacy and online access.
A January report on older adults’ computer connectivity sheds more light: nearly 22 million U.S. seniors 65 or older — 42% — do not have broadband access, according to the study by Older Adults Technology Services and the Humana Foundation. Older adults who don’t have a high school degree or who have an income of less than $25,000, are 10 times more likely to not have broadband internet service. Seniors who are Black or Latino or who live in rural areas – like rural Fresno County and surrounding counties in the central San Joaquin Valley – are more likely than the general population to lack broadband internet.
Dr. Rais Vohra, Fresno County’s interim health officer, encouraged people to offer their help to senior relatives or neighbors who need assistance doing the online registration for the coronavirus vaccine. He also encouraged people to be persistent in trying to make appointments while demand continues to outpace the supply of doses.
“I know it’s very hard to hear that you are officially eligible but that there’s no vaccine appointments that are currently available in our county,” Vohra said. “My heart goes out to those folks.
Geoffrey A. Fowler, technology columnist at the Washington Post, offered a tip sheet for seniors and their families in his column last week (Fowler gig-tested the list to help his own parents):
- Run through the websites several times to familiarize yourself before filling out the application.
- Be sure to have an ID, address, your medical insurance cards and codes handy.
- Community websites are also cropping up to help. VaccinateCA posts information on where COVID-19 vaccines are available, vaccine providers, county policies and who is eligible across the state. The people behind the site call medical professionals across California, collect the information and post it to the site.
- Those without internet access can call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at 833-422-4255 between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
- Set up an email account to establish an account with your vaccine provider and to confirm your appointment.
- Most of all, be patient. This can be time-consuming work. But, as the Post’s Fowler said: “It’s worth your patience.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 3:03 PM.
