On Tuesday, the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors showed concern for the inequity in COVID-19 vaccination for East Contra Costa County. The county also anticipates moving into the red tier within two weeks.
According to Contra Costa Health, they said the state has reduced their vaccine distribution by approximately 15% three weeks ago. The county dashboard shows the County has administered 329,430 doses with approximately 24.5% of the county receiving its first dose and 11.1% its second dose (over age 16).
However, Supervisor Diane Burgis was critical of the county saying more attention was needed for East Contra Costa as she read off the percentages during the meeting. She was also critical how her District was nowhere near the Oakland Coliseum and traditionally the area has had transportation issues while noting prior to COVID the surgery center shut down at John Muir, pharmacies have closed down.
“The access to the providers that you guys are talking about, it is even more limited in East Contra Costa County,” said Burgis while she also acknowledged how proud she was of the county addressing equity.
She said the average in the county was 25%, with the City of Walnut Creek being 39% being highest in the County, however, in her District ,the City of Brentwood was the highest at 18% vaccinated with the first dose.
“East County as a group that are lower than the average and I really want to emphasize that and shed a light on that,” said Burgis. “I am going to get more persistent with you all because I am hearing from people who want to get vaccinated and that is good news, but we are going to hit a point where we are going to need to convince and still persuade them to get vaccinated and part of the problem with our culture in this area is we are still waiting our turn. We are not pushing and not going to all the sites, we are waiting for you guys to tell us its our turn and I think that we are going to have to do a little more work in East Contra Costa because of the transportation and accessibility to technology and all of that.”
Burgis was also concerned for teachers and school district board members saying many of them are being told to go to Stockton or Oakland or somewhere else to get vaccinated.
“Whatever we can do to help our teachers that want to go back to school and help the kids get caught back up so I am going to push on East County with you guys,” said Burgis.
A look at East Contra Costa County:
| City | Population | First Dose | Second Dose |
| Antioch | 112,520 | 13.7% | 6.2% |
| Bay Point | 22,369 | 11% | 5.0% |
| Bethel Island | 2,137 | 15.3% | 5.2% |
| Brentwood | 65,118 | 18.7% | 8.5% |
| Byron | 1,325 | 11.0% | 3.3% |
| Discovery Bay | 13,352 | 17.4% | 7.7% |
| Knigthsen | 1,531 | 5.2% | 1.9% |
| Oakley | 42,451 | 13.2% | 6.1% |
| Pittsburg | 74,321 | 14.3% | 6.6% |
A look at other communities around the county:
| Alamo | 14,750 | 31.0% | 15.3% |
| Clayton | 11,337 | 28% | 12.0% |
| Concord | 130,143 | 18.7% | 8.0% |
| Danville | 43,876 | 32.8% | 15.3% |
| Diablo | 818 | 35.6% | 17.8% |
| El Cerrito | 24,953 | 27.1% | 10.9% |
| El Sobrante | 12,669 | 32.5% | 13.4% |
| Lafayette | 12,090 | 31.4% | 15.8% |
| Moraga | 16,946 | 26.5% | 13.3% |
| Orinda | 8,617 | 30.3% | 15.0% |
| Pleasant Hill | 34,267 | 24.2% | 11.7% |
| Walnut Creek | 70,769 | 39.6% | 20.0% |
Contra Costa County Health Addresses Burgis Concerns
County staff stated they were interested in working closer with partners in East Contra Costa County while encouraging residents not to wait and get whatever vaccine is available — calling it not practical to offer choices on which vaccine.
They said they were concerned by looking at the numbers in reaching their “equity metrics” in the areas that were hard to reach. Part of the issue was juggling the vaccine availability, appointments, locations, second doses which had to do with behind the scenes and out of their control.
The County assured Burgis they have a plan for equity and called it a priority with the next round of mobile clinics by identifying those areas with the lowest percentages of vaccines.
Supervisor Federal Glover stated the county has the ability to do more if they had more and its important to note.
“There is a number of willing sites that are willing to give the vaccination and I have a list of those as we go forward of where those sites can be but until we know the vaccination is going to be there, there is no need to open up the sites until we know that we have the capacity,” states Glover.
Glover joined Burgis in pushing for East Contra Costa communities to get the vaccine.
UPDATE– Statement from the County Health Services:
We recognize that more work needs to be done to improve vaccination numbers in East County. Here are a few things we have already started:
- Our Equity Team is working on a pilot outreach program focused on East County working with our farmworker community from various cities including Oakley, Brentwood, Byron, Knightsen, Antioch, and Pittsburg.
- CCHS operates three community vaccination sites in East County – one in Antioch (at the Nick Rodriguez Community Center), the Pittsburg Health Center and the Bay Point Health Center.
- Our mobile vaccination teams are going to low-income senior housing sites this week in Antioch, Bay Point at Pittsburg and we have more planned in the near future.
County Could Move to Red Tier in 2 Weeks
Dr. Farnitano explained while they anticipate moving into the red tier as early as 2-weeks, there has been no update in reducing business restrictions with the exception of religious services (25% capacity) due to a court ruling and youth sports based on the Governors order.
“As far as other business restrictions, I am not aware of any in the process of being changed at this point,” stated Farinatano.
Burgis confirmed the message to the community would potentially be the County anticipates moving into the red tier and that those tiers as they have been defined are likely to stay what they are like and not a lot of changes within the tiers would change.
Farintanto confirmed.
Statewide COVID-19 Data as of Today
- California has 3,481,611 confirmed cases to date. Numbers may not represent true day-over-day change as reporting of test results can be delayed.
- There were 2,533 newly recorded confirmed cases Monday.
- The 7-day positivity rate is 2.3% and the 14-day positivity rate is 2.6%.
- There have been 48,897,190 tests conducted in California. This represents an increase of 184,514 during the prior 24-hour reporting period.
- As case numbers continue to rise in California, the total number of individuals who will have serious outcomes will also increase. There have been 52,497 COVID-19 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
- As of March 2, providers have reported administering a total of 9,313,799 vaccine doses statewide. Numbers do not represent true day-to-day change as reporting may be delayed. The CDC reports that 12,084,690 doses have been delivered to entities within the state, and 12,311,565 vaccine doses, which includes the first and second dose, have been shipped.
Blueprint Summary (as of March 2)
- 40 counties in the Purple (widespread) Tier
- 16 counties in the Red (substantial) Tier
- 2 counties in Orange (moderate) Tier
Blueprint tiers are updated weekly on Tuesdays. Find the status of activities in specific counties.
ADDITIONAL DATA & UPDATES
Tracking COVID-19 in California
- State Dashboard – Daily COVID-19 data
- County Map – Local data, including tier status and ICU capacity
- Data and Tools – Models and dashboards for researchers, scientists and the public
- Blueprint for a Safer Economy – Data for establishing tier status
- COVID-19 Race & Ethnicity Data – Weekly updated Race & Ethnicity data
- Cases and Deaths by Age Group – Weekly updated Deaths by Age Group data
- Health Equity Dashboard – See how COVID-19 highlights existing inequities in health
