California will release about 75,000 vaccine doses every week for counties to administer to teachers and other education workers, under a plan announced by the governor’s office Thursday that further prioritizes educators to quickly get schools reopened.
Gov. Gavin Newsom promised last week to set aside a minimum of 10% of the state’s vaccine supply for education workers. The plan released Thursday offered the first details for how those doses will be distributed and teachers granted access to the front of the vaccination line.
The plan calls for counties to lead campaigns to get shots into the arms of K-12 teachers, child care workers and other school staff. Also, the state will host targeted drives for educators, including dedicated days for them at the Oakland Coliseum and California State University Los Angeles vaccination sites. Education workers will also be able to get doses from mobile units and community vaccination sites.
To ensure educators get priority access to the vaccine delivery network, the state will provide single-use codes so they can make appointments using California’s online vaccination portal, myturn.ca.gov.
The state plan encourages counties to prioritize vaccines for staff who work with low-income or otherwise disadvantaged students. The number of codes allocated to each county will be based on the number of education workers and whether those workers serve children who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, either by the illness itself or prolonged school closures.
County education departments will be responsible for distributing the codes to school districts, charter schools and private schools based on qualifying staff size and student equity. The schools will choose which staff members receive the codes.
The state’s plan does not specify whether teachers for lower grades will be prioritized over teachers for higher grades, as California pushes schools to reopen classrooms for younger children first.
The state confirmed that the codes will be single-use — unique to each teacher or other staff member. By creating single-use codes, the state hopes to avoid reported abuses of group vaccine access codes. The group codes, intended to get individuals in underserved areas easier access to vaccination sites, were widely shared via text messages among people they were not meant for.
At a news conference Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the systemic abuse and said the state would be moving away from a group access code to individual codes for people in need.
“We don’t like to see those abuses,” he said. “So we’re working through those things and we’re correcting for those.”
At least 35 of California’s 58 counties have started vaccinating teachers and other education workers. San Francisco began offering vaccines on Wednesday to school and child care workers, along with some other essential workers, including food and agriculture employees and emergency service providers.
On Thursday, two mass vaccination sites in the city — at Moscone Center and City College San Francisco — reopened after temporary closures due to lack of supply. Among the first in line were newly eligible individuals, including some teachers.
Teacher Julia Myall got her first dose of vaccine at Moscone Center on Thursday. She described the process as quick and efficient.
“I was super stoked to get a vaccine,” Myall said. “I’m ready to get back and start helping out the kids at school.”
Several Bay Area counties last week reported delays in vaccine shipments due to winter weather and subsequent interruptions in their vaccination efforts. Three counties — Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa — said thousands of doses have now arrived.
In San Francisco, despite the reopening of the two large vaccination sites, the status of the delayed doses remained unclear, and city officials did not respond to questions. The Moscone Center site has enough first and second doses of the vaccine to stay open for at least two weeks, said San Francisco Supervisor Matt Haney.
President Biden said Thursday that while coronavirus shots have so far been limited and in demand, by April or May, “instead of long lines, we’ll have the vaccine waiting” for anyone who wants it.
The addition of a vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson — which is expected to be authorized by the Food and Drug Administration soon — to the national supply also should improve access, Biden said.
He said that the FDA’s decision will be made “without any political pressure from me.” If it happens, he said at a White House event, “We have a plan to roll it out as quickly as Johnson & Johnson can make it.”
The pandemic has claimed at least 2.5 million lives around the world as of Thursday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. The United States accounts for 20%, or more than 500,000, of the total global coronavirus deaths, but just 4% of the world’s population.
Aidin Vaziri and Michael Williams are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com, michael.williams@sfchronicle.com
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February 26, 2021 at 07:07AM
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