San Mateo County pushes bivalent booster

Bivalent booster shots, or COVID-19 boosters engineered to better treat newer variations of the virus, are now widely available for those ages 12 and older but gauging the county’s progress in distributing doses has become complicated given that residents are expected to wait two to three months between their last dose or most recent infection.

Compared to the national average, which has seen about 4% of the population access a bivalent dose, the county has performed slightly better with about 43,000 people or 6% of county residents now treated with the updated vaccine.

That figure is far below the county’s overall vaccination rate of about 93%. But Rogers noted the number of county residents who have accessed previous booster shots also falls short of the overall vaccination rate. Only 64% of those ages 5 and older have been boosted. And numbers fall even lower for those ages 50 and older who now qualify for a second booster dose, with 37% of county residents age 50 and older and 45% of people 65 and older double boosted.

“We don’t have an easy way to figure out exactly what we should expect at this point. … Our 6% seems slightly better [than the national average],” Rogers said. “Overall, there’s been a whittling of the uptake of the boosters in our population.”

Recognizing that the public’s uptake in COVID-19 boosters has trailed — especially in communities hardest hit by the virus, including Black, Latino and Pacific Islander communities — Lizelle Lirio de Luna, director of Family Health Services, said officials will be hosting community forums to better “identify strategies to specifically target these groups and hopefully close these vaccination gaps,” in partnership with community-based organizations.

“We’re excited and hopeful that with this community-guided approach we can focus our resources and attention, going forward, to implement the strategies that are identified by our community partners,” Lirio de Luna said. “We’re hoping that will definitely help us get better reach, particularly for those communities that have been hardest hit during the pandemic.”

Nearly all ethnic groups have met the county’s goal of being at least 80% vaccinated but the rate of groups who have been boosted falls steeply below 60% with about 56% of Black residents, 43% of Latino residents and 43% of Pacific Islanders accessing the first booster doses. Meanwhile, residents of color account for 88,322 of the more than 170,000 infections recorded in the county.

Underscoring the importance of keeping up to date with vaccines, Marc Meulman, director of Public Health, Policy and Planning at San Mateo County Health, said COVID-19 case rates and hospitalizations are still higher than they were in April before omicron mutations began widely spreading this summer despite making major improvements.

As of Monday, 19 residents were being treated with COVID-19 in local hospitals with the average number of patients ranging between 12 and 25 over the last few weeks. In April, hospitalizations ranged between four and eight.

“It’s important to get that message out because, anecdotally, it seems like the momentum behind getting additional boosters is declining,” Supervisor Dave Pine said.

Supervisor David Canepa also noted the county has historically experienced spikes in infections as cooler winter months blanket the region and strongly encouraged County Health officials to make vaccination clinics and related information as easily accessible as possible for all residents regardless of background.

“My concern lies with where we are at the time of year. It’s Oct. 4. Winter is just around the corner,” Canepa said. “We all want to sort of think COVID is over. In fact, it’s not. I think if we get out ahead of it now it would be really, really critical.”

Visit the County Health website at smchealth.org/coronavirus for more information on COVID-19 vaccines, testing opportunities and other guidance.

sierra@smdailyjournal.com

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