On January 18, 2021, RCRC and County partners sent a letter to Governor Newsom which outlined the challenges local health jurisdictions are facing in the administration of vaccines. The federal and state government are beginning to address some of the key items outlined in the letter around timely and accurate reporting, data transparency, and dependable vaccine allocation. This week the federal and state government made several announcements regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine distribution, including:

  • California Department of Public Health (CDPH) lifts the Regional Stay at Home Order for all regions statewide, due to the four-week ICU capacity projections for all regions being above 15%.
  • 33 RCRC counties are in the purple tier, 3 are in the red tier and 1 is in the orange tier. CDPH will provide county tier updates on Tuesdays. 
  • To increase available vaccine supply based on existing in-state vaccines, CDPH announced a process that will allow for the reallocation of vaccines from providers who have not used at least 65 percent of their available supply on hand for a week.
  • Following Phase 1B, Tier 1 of the vaccine distribution plan the state will transition to an age-based eligibility system.
  • State launched My Turn system to standardize information and data. Individuals can sign up for a notification when they are eligible to make an appointment and the system will also allow vaccine administers to report vaccination information into the state data system. The system will launch first in Los Angeles and San Diego counties.
  • The state is creating a new Third Party Administration (TPA) network to speed the delivery of current supply of vaccines to eligible Californians.
  • The Newsom Administration announced negotiations with Blue Shield of California to be the Third Party Administrator (TPA,) which would be responsible for distributing vaccines statewide to identified providers (i.e., pharmacies, healthcare networks, hospitals, vaccination site, etc.). Kaiser Permanente will collaborate with Blue Shield to help deliver vaccines quickly across the state.
  • President Biden’s COVID-19 Task Force provided its first briefing.
  • The federal COVID-19 Task force announced states should expect a 16% increase in vaccines (8.6 million does to 10 million doses per week) over the next three weeks. 
  • The federal government is planning to secure 200 million more does of COVID-19 vaccines.
  • The Biden administration committed to provide states a three-week advance notice on how much vaccine they will be allocated, allowing more time for states, local governments, and healthcare providers to plan for vaccine distribution.

RCRC staff will continue to monitor the situation and work with our county partners to advocate for local vaccine needs. For more information, contact Sarah Dukett, Legislative Advocate at (916) 447-4806 or sdukett@rcrcnet.org