Cottage Health Reaches Vaccination Milestone with 50,000 Doses Administered
On Thursday April 1, Cottage Health reached a milestone of 50,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses administered. This is about 30 percent of vaccine doses administered throughout the county, as multiple providers work in tandem to quickly offer vaccine to protect the community.
Cottage began its community drive-up vaccine clinic at the Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital campus on January 15, administering 500 doses that day.
As of April 1, Cottage has offered 28 vaccine clinic days at the drive-up location, increasing total doses each week to now 2,000 a day. Cottage Urgent Care locations in Goleta (Hollister Village and Calle Real Center) and in Buellton have also joined the effort, administering over 3,450 vaccine doses so far.
Vaccine eligibility currently includes individuals age 50 and up; and those who work in certain healthcare occupations, education/child care, food/agriculture, emergency services, public transit/airport/commercial airlines, as well as individuals age 16-64 with severe health conditions.
On April 15, eligibility will expand to everyone age 16 and up. Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine currently authorized by the FDA for those age 16 and 17, and Pfizer is the vaccine being offered at the Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital drive-up clinic.
Cottage is part of California’s My Turn system for vaccine appointments. My Turn (myturn.ca.gov) provides an online portal for people to check their vaccine eligibility and look for appointments across multiple vaccine clinic sites, including those offered by Cottage. Once they are eligible, individuals are encouraged to schedule the first vaccine available to them from any provider. All of the currently authorized vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson) are shown to be highly effective against COVID-19.
“Reaching the milestone of over 50,000 doses in less than three months is a testament to the coordinated effort from all parts of our organization to quickly expand vaccine distribution in our community. And this would not be possible without the hundreds of volunteers – many retired physicians and nurses – who stepped forward to help with these clinics while Cottage staff provided ongoing care in the hospitals throughout the extreme surge of cases in the winter,” said Ron Werft, President and CEO of Cottage Health. “Every week, we are closer to achieving the level of protection that will keep our community safer.”
