The state of the pandemic is shifting quickly. On April 15, all Marin residents over the age of 15 will become eligible to receive a Covid-19 vaccination. By June 15, Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to dissolve the tiered framework that has limited activities based on disease transmission, reopening the economy statewide.
Sixty-one percent of Marin residents have already received a first dose of vaccine. Despite expanded eligibility, Marin will likely continue to receive the same number of doses a week—between 16,000 and 22,000—while low-income areas are slated for increased supply. Scheduling congestion is anticipated, though only for a period, according to county officials.
“The simplicity of just opening up vaccinations to everyone is really welcome,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin’s public health officer. “We have been doing a lot of gatekeeping by age and occupation. It has been necessary to make sure that those who are most vulnerable are vaccinated earlier, but it has also led to complexity and frustration. Opening it completely will be easier to manage.”
While Marin’s vaccination rate is high overall, racial discrepancies remain. For residents age 65 and over, 75 percent of whites have received one or two doses, compared to 72 percent of Asians, 65 percent of Blacks and 57 percent of Latinos. Vaccination rates are closer for ages 45 to 64: In that category, all minority groups have a slightly higher rate than whites. Yet between ages 16 and 44, Black residents have the lowest vaccination rate, falling behind the other communities.
Marin’s mobile vaccination teams, which will soon double from four to eight, are seeking to ameliorate the inequalities. The county is now monitoring vaccine distribution by race each week, and has committed to no one group falling behind by more than 10 percent the rate of another, Dr. Willis said.
After meeting a statewide goal of administering 4 million doses to low-income zip codes, Gov. Newsom will further reopen the economy by loosening the criteria within each of the four tiers. Marin is currently in orange tier, with around three cases per 100,000 residents a day, and could move into the least-restrictive yellow tier by the end of April.
On Tuesday, the governor said he plans to remove the four-tier system in June and move closer to a pre-pandemic way of life, with some remaining restrictions, like a mask mandate. But that step is contingent on indicators such as hospitalizations remaining low and vaccinations high.
Dr. Willis emphasized that with 40 percent of residents unvaccinated in Marin, vigilance is still necessary. Last week, the first two cases of the B.1.1.7 variant from the U.K., which is more infectious and can cause more severe illness, were detected in the county.
Locally, West Marin Medical Center and the Coastal Health Alliance are focused on distributing an average of 200 vaccine doses a week. Frances Grau Brull, the C.H.A.’s operations manager, said the group is administering 100 doses every Friday at the Dance Palace, while the company Curative uses the clinic on Thursdays to distribute the other half. Considering it has sometimes been a challenge to find the remaining patients who meet the criteria to receive the slots, Ms. Brull said she looks forward to the expanding eligibility.
Dr. Colin Hamblin of the West Marin Medical Center said he has been mobile and proactive to give 200 doses each week. He anticipates an eventual shift from a Thursday clinic to offering vaccinations daily, after everyone is eligible and his past patients recieve their second shot.
For some, relief is already sinking in. “Talking to people my age, all of us say it took the weight of the world off our shoulders,” Point Reyes Station resident Peggy Day said. “I’m not necessarily into vaccinations, but given the choice between disease and the vaccination, it was an easy choice. Now I put my grandchildren in the car with me. I hug them.”