Courtesy of www.cdc.gov

Public health officials urged Del Norters over 75 or those over 65 with chronic health conditions to contact their physician about scheduling the COVID-19 vaccine.

The Del Norte County released information about the number of vaccine doses it currently has.

This comes as a single case was reported to the Public Health Branch on Friday. No new cases were reported among the county's incarcerated population.

The number of Del Norte County patients with active COVID-19 is 27, according to the COVID-19 Information Hub. There is no one in the hospital as a result of the novel coronavirus, according to the Public Health Branch.

From the Public Health Branch's Friday news release:

We would like to provide some updates on local COVID-19 vaccination data and planning. Please understand that there are changes at a federal and state level daily and we are doing our best to keep up with our planning and pivot when necessary. Although it is sometimes difficult to share details as they are a bit of a moving target, we recognize the importance of sharing this information with the public and will do our best to keep you updated.

• The total number of vaccine doses distributed is 980 (this includes first and second doses).

• Most of the Pfizer was distributed to community health care partners (Sutter, Crescent City Skilled Nursing, United Indian Health Services and Open Door) who could self-administer the vaccine to staff.

• Approximately 25% was directly distributed by PH staff to first responders.

• There was a hold on Moderna this week which slowed our distribution down, but we’ve got a plan to get back on track. We have 560 vials of Moderna on hand. 500 of those doses were held as the entire allocation was within the lot number held by the California Department of Public Health. Now cleared, these doses will be directed to be used in our next clinic, which we are planning for January 28th.

• Without ultra-cold freezers, we have not been able to order our full allocation of Pfizer. The maximum amount shared with us from Humboldt is 1200 doses. Our freezers are being calibrated to become stable and we believe we will be able to order and receive directly soon, in the next week we expect.

• We pick up between 20 and 40 vials from Humboldt each Monday, which is 100-200 doses. The amount we pick up is based upon a pre-determined list of requests from community partners. We do not pick up more than we can use. We strive for zero waste and have essentially used all of the vaccine we have picked up.

• We are almost through our Tier 1.a target population. We are starting on the 1.b group

• We had a clinic at Public Health last Friday, between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm. We gave 56 vaccines, and all were a predetermined group, meaning they were pre-registered through providers.

If you are 75 or older, or 65 or older with underlying health conditions, and are interested in being vaccinated, we recommend contacting your provider to express your interest. In the future, we will provide details to the general population for signing up for our mass vaccination clinics, which are presently being planned and prepared for in accordance with the state tier system.

Here is the link to the state’s guidelines.

Dept. of Health and Human Services Public Health Branch 707-464-0861

Meanwhile, Del Norte County's state senator, Mike McGuire, will host another virtual town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday focusing on the need to slow the spread of COVID-19 as well as vaccine distribution.

The meeting will feature Dr. Timothy Brewer, of the University of California, Los Angeles's Fielding School of Public Health and Geffen School of Medicine as well as Lori Nezhura of the California Office of Emergency Services, co-chair of the state's COVID-19 vaccine task force.

To register for McGuire's town hall, click here.

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