Santa Clara County cheered the news that the federal government was sending them more than half a million more doses of COVID-19 vaccines this week, but many people are still finding it nearly impossible to get a shot.
For nearly a month, Nisard Modi scoured websites, without success, looking for a vaccine appointment.
“I was trying to get vaccinated because I’m living with so many people,” the Santa Clara resident said.
This week his persistence paid off, scoring an appointment at Levi's Stadium where an additional 10,000 people were able to get a vaccine Wednesday, about double of what they did on a single day last week.
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The county said thousands of additional appointments opened up because the federal government just delivered more than 250,000 vaccine doses to Santa Clara County.
Still, despite the boost in supply we went onto the county’s website hunting for an appointment - only to find none were available right now.
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Dr. Ahmad Kamal, the county’s director of Healthcare System Preparedness explains why.
“The increase in vaccines came at a time of increasing eligibility so in the last few days so many more people were eligible so despite the fact we released 100,000 doses in a single day those spots filled up very quickly,” he said.
But Kamal says the county plans to open up new appointments every day so be patient and persistent. He also says the county has beefed up its staffing to make sure all those additional doses get into arms asap.
“To do that we have multiple mass vaccination sites we have staff working we have many government employees working, people from the state, from the national guard it’s an all hands on deck moment to get vaccine shots delivered,” Kamal said.
