Jessica Cejnar / Monday, March 8, 2021 @ 3:23 p.m.
More Vaccine Trickles Into County, New COVID-19 Testing Sites Up and Running
Public Health staff shot 440 Del Norters with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Saturday and may be able to expand its distribution at a future clinic, Public Health Officer Dr. Warren Rehwaldt said Monday.
More vaccine has been trickling into the county, including the Pfizer inoculations Rite-Aid has begun to administer, Rehwaldt said. The Public Health Branch continues to supply doses to local medical offices and has met with Blue Shield, the third-party administrator for California vaccine distribution. As a result, Del Norte County will enroll in the statewide vaccination program, My Turn, sometime in the next few weeks, he said.
“They will be deciding a lot of technical stuff about vaccine distribution going forward and they make recommendations to the state,” Rehwaldt wrote in a letter to the community. “They will be assisting us and perhaps coming up with additional means for vaccinating on our behalf.”
Seven new COVID-19 cases were identified in Del Norte County as of Saturday, according to the county’s COVID-19 Information Hub. There are a total of 33 active cases in the county and one person hospitalized.
Del Norte County has had 1,027 confirmed cases and five deaths since the pandemic began last year.
In addition to more people receiving the vaccine, COVID-19 testing in Del Norte County has changed. OptumServe began last Friday using a minibus. There’s an online sign-up process and people are asked to walk-up to receive their test during a designated 30-minute window.
Rehwaldt said he signed up to receive his test between 8-8:30 a.m. Saturday.
“A couple of people showed up behind me in a socially distanced line while I checked in at the canopy next to the bus. Then an OptumServe staffer walked me around the back of the bus under an awning,” Rehwaldt wrote. “I was handed a swab, just like Verily, except I was stading outside. I swabbed myself, handed it back and went on my way. Pretty simple.”
OptumServe test sites will be available from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. at the back Kidtown parking lot on Front Street in Crescent City Thursday-Saturday; at the old Ray’s Food Place parking lot at U.S. 101 and N. Fred Haight Dr. in Smith River on Tuesdays; and at the Holiday Inn Express hotel in Klamath on Wednesdays.
Rehwaldt urges people to take advantage of the testing site. OptumServe can handle up to 84 tests a day.
“If the service is not used enough, then we will lose it,” Rehwaldt said.
Though the number of cases are “pretty close to getting us in trouble,” Rehwaldt said Del Norte County remains in the Red Tier, the second most restrictive level on California’s four-tiered Blueprint for a Safer Economy.
Rehwaldt said he thinks Del Norte will stay in the Red Tier, but residents have to continue to wear a mask and social distance — even those who have received the shot.
“Some experts are saying that we are in the ‘eye of the hurricane’ at the moment and we should prepare for a fourth surge,” he said. “I hope they are wrong, but they wouldn’t be experts if they could not make some good predictions and these are the same people who predicted the surge we just got out of.”
To register for COVID-19 testing, click here or call (888) 634-1123.
Rehwaldt is expected to speak before the Del Norte County Board of Supervisors at 10:45 a.m. Tuesday. To view that presentation click here.
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