SALINAS – The second clinic of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California and Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas plans to expand tenfold, administering 3,000 COVID-19 vaccinations to Monterey County’s farmworkers this weekend.
“This is the moment we’ve been waiting for. Finally, more vaccine is coming into our county to vaccinate our essential farmworkers,” said Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo. “Saturday will be the biggest one-day farmworker vaccination clinic anywhere in the state with 3,000 slots available.”
The collaborative vaccination program which had its initial clinic last week grew significantly for the next one planned for Saturday at the Salinas Sports Complex Rodeo Grounds for farmworkers who live and work in Monterey County. There are no age restrictions for this clinic.
“This expansion will allow us to vaccinate even more farmworkers as they begin arriving in the Salinas Valley in the coming weeks, providing the protection they require and deserve as essential employees growing and harvesting food for our nation,” said Dr. Max Cuevas, CEO of Clinica de Salud del Valle de Salinas, in a press release.
The Grower-Shipper Association works directly with Clinic de Salud to schedule vaccination appointments for employers interested in securing vaccines for their employees through the appointment-based program. Agriculture employers are advised to survey their employees for interest and to contact the Grower-Shipper Association for questions about scheduling and for more information.
The first Grower-Shipper/Clinica de Salud clinic took place last week at D’Arrigo California in Salinas with eligibility limited to agricultural workers 65 years old and older who live and/or work in Monterey County. This week’s clinic has dropped the age restriction.
As a Federally Qualified Health Center, Clinic de Salud receives the supply for vaccines designated for agricultural workers directly from the federal government, meaning its supply is not counted against the Monterey County allotment of vaccine.
About 60,000 farmworkers are in Monterey County with employees migrating from places such as Coachella Valley, Imperial County, the San Joaquin Valley, Yuma, Arizona, Washington and Oregon as well as from outside the U.S. through the H2A guestworker visa program, said Chris Valadez, president of the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, in a previous report.
Valadez has said in his opinion the goal is to vaccinate as many agricultural employees who are currently here as well as those who are entering into the area later this spring and into the summer.
At Wednesday’s COVID-19 briefing, Monterey County Health Officer Dr. Edward Moreno said in addition to federal allocations to the Grower-Shipper Association and Clinica de Salud effort of about 5,000 doses, Monterey County’s allocation of vaccine has increased.
“We continue to receive weekly vaccine and can anticipate being able to hopefully have an ongoing stream of vaccine coming into Monterey County and especially with this new vaccine (Johnson and Johnson) increasing allocations to Monterey County,” said Moreno. “Over the last two weeks we have received approximately 10,000 doses from the state allocation and that exceeds the previous weekly allocations of about 6,000 doses a week.”
That increase represents a 67% increase.
Moreno added that more pharmacies will be receiving vaccine for distribution. As part of the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program for COVID-19 vaccination, certain retail pharmacies nationwide are receiving limited vaccine supply directly from the federal government which will be used to vaccinate state-selected priority groups at no cost and include CVS Pharmacies, as well as Rite Aid and Walgreens.
Wednesday marked the beginning of more people becoming eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, including those 65 years and older, and those at risk of exposure while working in the food, agriculture, childcare, education and emergency services sectors.
Independent Transportation Network Monterey County is offering to help seniors with “Free and Dignified Rides” for anyone 65 years and older with an approved appointment. Requests must be made 24 hours in advance and are based upon driver availability. Call 831-233-3447 for rides and visit www.mcvaccinate.com for information on available COVID-19 vaccination appointments.
Moreno said that Gov. Newsom has expressed his desire to have 10% of the county’s allocation dedicated to educators. There is not additional vaccine provided for that so it must be taken from the Monterey County allocation.
Dr. Deneen Guss, the Monterey County superintendent of schools said Wednesday there are 18,000 workers from transitional kindergarten to higher education that work in the education sector in addition to 1,600 that work in childcare.
Guss said clinics are planned throughout the county but those eligible in education and childcare should seek vaccination from their health care providers and pharmacies.
Moreno added that the county is working with superintendents to have PODs (points of distribution) set up to get vaccine to those in education and childcare.
The Monterey County Health Officer said that of the vaccine the county has, 77% has been administered. Throughout the county, 15% of Monterey County residents 18 years and older have had at least one dose of the vaccine.
California should expect to get 3 million doses administered in March and 4 million in April, said Moreno.
The VA Palo Alto Health Care System has provided another 400 federally-supplied Moderna vaccination doses to the Gourley VA-DoD Outpatient Clinic in Marina for another distribution effort on Friday to veterans 55 years and older who are currently enrolled in the VA Palo Alto Health Care System.
According to Monterey County Veterans Services Officer Jason Cameron, all appointment slots have already been filled but he said that his office, with the help of Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, is working diligently to secure more for area veterans.
Call 650-496-2535 to register for the vaccination. Veterans must be enrolled in the VA Palo Alto Health Care System to receive the vaccine. To enroll call 831-647-7613 or visit www.MVAO.org.
