New Vaccination Availability Announced

A fairly large allocation of vaccine arrived in Santa Barbara County this week, some of it courtesy of the state’s new MyTurn vaccination appointment system. Cottage Hospital announced it had 10,000 doses of Pfizer to give this week, but residents must go to myturn.ca.gov to make appointments. The MyTurn system also automatically sends emails or texts to people who are signed up and yet to be vaccinated.

The Cottage press release notes the MyTurn website states up top that no appointments are available, but if you scroll down further to “other locations,” the Cottage appointments for its Goleta hospital will appear.

As well, Lompoc Valley Medical Center has 250 vaccines scheduled for each day this coming week, second doses for this week and first doses after April 19, CEO Steve Popkin said. The hospital is also using the MyTurn scheduling system.

Thorough lists of locations that should be offering vaccines, including Costco and Walmart, are at the website for Santa Barbara County Public Health here. One set of locations offered by Public Health is listed at the green bar (County Public Health Department Vaccination Clinics), and others are the blue bar (Additional Community Vaccination Sites).

Public Health spokesperson Jackie Ruiz said 2,400 new allocations came through the state and are reflected by appointments available at the DeWees Center in Lompoc and at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria. Thousands more were expected in coming weeks as second doses. A number of pharmacy locations are listed at both the county and state sites, but as many have learned, searchers must go through a multi-step process that may or may not result in appointments actually being available.

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