California will roll out a new vaccine distribution system, with the state taking greater control of who gets the COVID-19 shots and how.
In a Tuesday media briefing, state officials admitted that the new system isn’t quite ready yet and defended the decision to lift the regional stay-at-home orders.
With COVID-19 transmission rates and caseloads dropping by the day, the state is turning to trying to speed up its dismal vaccination rate, lagging far behind almost every other state. So, Gov. Gavin Newsom is putting Secretary of Government Operations Yolanda Richardson in charge of a new system, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
Richardson acknowledged that until now, it’s been a bit of a mess.
"Californians were understandably confused by mixed messages, variability of eligibility across the state, when it’s my turn, who’s going next," she said.
Some California counties are in Phase 1A. Others are in Phase 1B.
Some providers have doses left over, while others don’t have enough.
You can now use the state’s new MyTurn website to register, and starting next month, make an appointment for vaccination.
A third-party administrator will take charge of California’s vaccine allotments and dispense them to providers, however, the governor and Richardson made Tuesday’s announcement without having chosen that administrator yet.
"As soon as we have more information about the third-party administrator in terms of making an announcement of who that will be and what the scope of their work will be, we’ll definitely be sharing that," Richardson said.
In other words, this simplified, streamlined, standardized vaccine system is not yet ready to go. It’s unclear when it will be.
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