COVID-19 vaccine appointments are available for local residents age 75 or older as well as health care workers, but each provider has its own signup system.
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department is overseeing the distribution to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and its own vaccination sites, while federal pharmacy partnership programs supply vaccine doses to skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities.
There are limited supplies of vaccine doses around the country and the world, and public health officials hope there will be increased deliveries in the coming months, especially as more vaccines are approved for use.
As of now, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are being distributed in the county, and both require two doses (of the same kind) to be fully effective.
Everyone should get their second dose at the same place as the first dose, according to county officials.
There are about 36,000 people who are age 75 or older, so it will take weeks to get enough doses (two per person) to vaccinate everyone eligible who wants it. Health care workers are still being vaccinated as well, and there are an estimated 26,000 people in the county in that group.
As of Wednesday, the county was getting about 6,000 vaccine doses weekly, with about 51,000 received so far. December deliveries were larger and mostly reserved for frontline health care workers.
#SantaBarbaraCounty We are encouraged by the enthusiasm that our community has in getting #vaccinated against #COVID19. We continue to distribute & plan for more vaccinations as they become available. You can help end the pandemic by #slowingthespread until it’s your turn! pic.twitter.com/p2KWyaDugO
— SBC Public Health (@SBCPublicHealth) January 22, 2021
Everyone who registers for a COVID-19 vaccine appointment should bring photo ID and proof of Santa Barbara County residence, which may be a photo ID if the address is local.
County officials note that people who are not eligible for a vaccine right now should not make an appointment right now.
“You will be turned away at the vaccine site,” the county says. “This takes away an appointment from someone who is eligible and slows down the process for everyone.”
The county is directly scheduling some vaccination appointments and has updated information on its website here: https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
Sign up for vaccine-related updates from the county, including information on available appointments, here: https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/1937902/1753150/.
Vaccine Providers in Santa Maria and Orcutt
COVID-19 vaccine appointments are available at Marian Regional Medical Center for eligible county residents (age 75 or older) and health care workers: https://www.dignityhealth.org/central-coast/locations/marianregional/coronavirus.
To make an appointment, call 805.739.3815 or visit https://sugeni.us/Wg5A.
Pharmacies with limited appointments, according to the county, include:
» Sav-On Pharmacy, 2320 S. Broadway in Santa Maria. The online appointment schedule and signup link is: https://kordinator.mhealthcoach.net/vcl/1609884413461.
» Sav-On Pharmacy, 1120 E. Clark Ave. in Orcutt. The online appointment schedule and signup link is: https://kordinator.mhealthcoach.net/vcl/1609885376384.
Vaccine Providers in Lompoc
The Lompoc Valley Medical Center is administering second doses to people who had their first dose there, and will start scheduling more first-dose appointments when more vaccine doses are delivered, CEO Steve Popkin said Friday in his community message.
Click here for more vaccine-related information from LVMC.
In the meantime, Lompoc Valley residents who are eligible (age 75-plus) can contact LVMC to get on an appointment wait list. Email vaccine@lompocvmc.com or call 805.875.8909.
“For those of you who have received your first dose of vaccine (at LVMC), the date to return for your second dose is written on the back of your Vaccination Record Card. You should come at the same time as you did for the first dose appointment, although that time is not written on the card,” he said.
Pharmacies with limited appointments, according to the county, include:
» Vons Pharmacy, 729 North H St. in Lompoc. The online appointment schedule and signup link is: https://kordinator.mhealthcoach.net/vcl/1610479431744.
» Sav-On Pharmacy, 1500 North H St. in Lompoc. The online appointment schedule and signup link is: https://kordinator.mhealthcoach.net/vcl/1609886485581.
Vaccine Providers in Santa Barbara and Goleta
Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso said this week that Cottage Health and Sansum Clinic, two of the area’s larger vaccine providers, have 19,000 people on appointment wait lists between them.
Cottage Health, which is running a drive-up vaccination site at Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, said 13,000 people age 75-plus have signed up to get appointment notifications.
“Within the age 75-plus priority group, Cottage Health will open batches of appointments on a rolling basis each week by sending notifications to groups in order of the date signed up on the COVID-19 Vaccine Contact List,” it stated. “It could be several weeks before you receive a notification to schedule.”
The link for more information and signing up for the notification list is here: https://www.cottagehealth.org/coronavirus-covid-19/.
As of Monday, Cottage Health had administered 4,558 doses to community members through the drive-up clinic and 7,141 doses to Cottage Health staff members.
Sansum Clinic is scheduling vaccine appointments for patients age 75 or older who receive ongoing care at Sansum Clinic, and has more information available online here: https://covid19.sansumclinic.org/.
It is notifying patients through MyChart, the electronic health record system, and mailing notices to people without those accounts.
“When you log in to MyChart, if there is an appointment available, even if it is far into the future, please schedule it as a placeholder and don’t consider it your final appointment. When our supply increases, we will work to move appointments to the earliest available date. By scheduling a future appointment, we can notify you when earlier appointments become available,” Sansum Clinic states.
Have Questions? Need Help Making a Vaccination Appointment?
Sign up for vaccine-related updates from the county, including information on available appointments, here: https://signup.e2ma.net/signup/1937902/1753150/.
For COVID-19 vaccine questions and help making an appointment, residents can call 2-1-1 and select option 4. From 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, those calls go to the county call center, where people are available to answer questions.
The state has launched the MyTurn website where residents can sign up for notifications when they are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Click here: https://myturn.ca.gov/.
For more vaccine-related information, read Noozhawk’s Coronavirus section and this Q&A about the county distribution plan.
Visit this link for more vaccine-related information from the Public Health Department: https://publichealthsbc.org/vaccine/.
The Public Health Department also warns people to be on the lookout for vaccine-related scams. Read more on that here: County Warns People to Beware of COVID-19 Vaccine Scams.
“COVID-19 vaccine is being distributed in Santa Barbara County in a fair and transparent way and always at no charge. If someone offers to sell you a chance to get vaccinated before it is your turn, it’s a scam,” said Suzanne Grimmesey of the Behavioral Wellness Department.
— Noozhawk managing editor Giana Magnoli can be reached at gmagnoli@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.