That led to a rush of people trying to find out how and when they could get their shots. So many people tried to log on to Alameda County's vaccine information page Wednesday that it crashed.
The announcement added roughly 1.25 million more people just in the Bay Area who are now eligible for the vaccine before the state has finished vaccinating all of its healthcare workers and long term care residents and staffers.
Local leaders say there is little information on the logistics of distribution.
"We’re on track to more than double the capacity to deliver vaccines starting next week, and that’s going to continue to grow from there,” said Santa Clara County Counsel James Williams. “But what we don’t know and what we don’t have visibility into is how much vaccine itself is going to be coming to the county and that’s really a challenge."
Williams said the county requested 100,000 additional doses Sunday, but the state only authorized 6,000.
There are 300,000 seniors in Santa Clara County alone.
Williams says part of the issue is that big healthcare providers like Kaiser, Stanford and the Palo Alto Medical Foundation are getting their own allotments directly from the state, and county leaders are left out of the process and cannot keep track of how many doses are really coming in.
And with federal and state rules changing over time, it is all the county can do to get people lined up and ready for a dose when it is their turn.
"We know, for example, that the federal government and the incoming Biden administration said that they’re going to take a different approach to vaccine delivery that may result in a lot more vaccine coming our way. Of course, we then need to hear from the state what that actually translates into here for Santa Clara County. And again, we don’t know what might be coming to Kaiser or PAMF or other systems directly. So we’re operating in an environment that’s not only changes but has limited information."
County officials say people who think they are eligible for the vaccine should go to the county’s website sccfreevax.org to sign up for an appointment.