Waning demand for COVID-19 vaccine in Sonoma County triggers shift in inoculation strategies

Waning demand for the COVID-19 vaccine has prompted public health officials to begin ramping down inoculation clinics and shift resources away from mass vaccination efforts.

“With 81% of our public now fully vaccinated, we’re seeing less activity at some of our clinics,” Sonoma County spokesman Paul Gullixson said. “On some days we’ve seen as few as seven people come in for first round vaccinations or boosters. Given that, it just doesn’t make sense to continue keeping our clinics open six days a week for up to eight hours a day.”

Officials said the vaccine clinic in Rohnert Park Community Center, operated by OptumService, is scheduled to close at the end of April. The clinic at the Roseland Community Center in south west Santa Rosa is expected to close at the end of June.

Officials also are exploring options for another site in Roseland neighborhood that will allow continued vaccinations there. Public health staff credit such vaccine clinics with the county’s success in reducing vaccination rate disparities among Latinos.

Gullixson said the county is also considering a mobile clinic vaccination model that would not be limited to a set location. The changes are part of a broader shift in local pandemic response, one that regards local virus transmission as endemic and something residents and businesses must live with and manage.

But COVID-19 is still a threat, especially for those who have not been vaccinated, said Dr. Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer. Mase said the omicron subvariant, BA.2, which is causing surges in Europe, is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in Sonoma County.

County health officials said they’ve detected 19 cases of BA.2, though there are likely many more such infections, given that not all local cases of coronavirus are genetically sequenced. BA.2 has yet to cause a spike in new cases and hospitalizations, Mase said.

“I do not expect a surge, at least not something that would require some changes to health guidelines or new health orders,” she said. “Although the mask mandate ended last month, we do continue to strongly encourage everyone to wear masks indoors to control the spread and prevent further transmission of the new variant.”

The current transmission rate of the virus is 6.9 new daily cases per 100,000 people. Kathryn Pack, who heads the county’s epidemiology team, said case rates have “remained steady” between 6 and 7 new cases per 100,000 people. Overall coronavirus test positivity, the share of all tests that are positive, also has held steady at about 3%.

Just three months ago, at the height of the surge, the county was averaging more than 250 new daily cases per 100,000 residents.

Though demand for COVID-19 vaccine has picked up slightly with the authorization of second boosters, the number of residents getting inoculated against the virus has dwindled since the omicron-driven winter surge.

The daily averages for the weeks ending April 4 and March 26 were 723 and 277 inoculations, respectively. By contrast, the daily average for the week ending Dec. 4, 2021 was 3,482 vaccinations. A year ago, the week ending April 17 saw an average of 5,666 daily inoculations.

Officials said that fortunately the county currently has a relatively high vaccination rate, compared to the state’s 58 counties. With 81% of the population fully vaccinated, the county has the ninth best inoculation rate.

Pack said some counties in the region are actually seeing increases in case rates. San Francisco, she said, has a transmission rate of 13 new daily cases per 100,000 residents.

Sonoma County’s high degree of vaccine coverage, as well as the natural immunity that resulted from the many infections during the omicron surge, are for now preventing a surge associated with BA.2, Pack said.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.