County provides updates on My Turn, teacher vaccine days and when we’ll move to the next tier
Every Tuesday, the state looks at county tier levels. We’re taking a look at where Riverside County stands and how much longer we’ll have to stay in the purple tier before moving to the red tier. We’re also learning more from the county about prioritizing teachers and more vaccinations on the way.
News Channel 3’s Caitlin Thropay brings us these updates from the county public health department.
“The case rate that we need to get to is below seven and we need to stay there for two weeks and then we can move to the red tier,” Jose Arballo, a spokesperson for Riverside County Public Health Department said on Tuesday.
Our positivity rate is already within the red tier metrics at 5.8% but it’s our case rate that’s keeping up from moving forward.
Our case rate is currently at 11 per 100,000. Arballo said since there’s so much focus on vaccines, there are fewer people getting tested, which is giving us a penalty in our adjusted case rate.
“So we’re encouraging people to get tested,” he said.
Meanwhile, the county is expecting to potentially get an unspecified amount of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine as early as next week.
“We’re very excited about getting another tool in our tool kit,” Arballo said.
As for those eligible to receive the vaccine, President Biden and Governor Newsom announced this week the need for educators to be prioritized in getting the vaccine.
We asked the county if they have any plans in the works or already set for teachers-only vaccination days.
“That’s something we’re discussing," Arballo said. "The feasibility, the actual nuts and bolts of a targeted professionally vaccine clinic is something we might consider doing. We’ve talked about it but I have not heard of any solid plans to actually do it yet,” he said.
“I know there’s definitely a focus on getting educators vaccinated,” he added.
Arballo also said they’re currently working with the Riverside County Office of Education as well as school districts.
As for the new state program called “My Turn” aimed at improving the vaccine appointment process, Arballo said the county has not implemented it yet.
Riverside County is training their staff on the My Turn software before transitioning over to the new program.
“You really shouldn’t see a change when you sign up,” Arballo said.
Once My Turn is in place, people will still go through the county website which will redirect them to My Turn to make an appointment.
