Press Release
Press Release Español

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2021
Contact: Jenny Tan, Public Information Officer
Work Cell: (530) 908-0186

Yolo County Vaccinating Education Workers
County Partners with School Districts and Dignity Health to Provide COVID-19 Vaccines

Woodland, CA - Yolo County is expediting access to COVID-19 vaccination doses for individuals who work in education. This week, the County reserved 20 percent, or 800 doses, of its current available vaccine supply for education. To quickly distribute vaccines to this industry, the County partnered with the Yolo County Office of Education (YCOE), the county’s five school districts, Woodland Community College, as well as Dignity Health Woodland Clinic, one of the nation’s largest health care systems. 

Dignity Health Woodland Clinic is operating private clinics February 26 and 27 to vaccinate education workers already in classrooms or on-campus or who will be returning soon. YCOE and the county’s five school districts provided the names of qualifying staff to Dignity Health Woodland Clinic to schedule appointments. Individuals in education qualify for vaccine prioritization based on their occupational health exposure. Individuals already reporting to work on campuses were offered vaccines first, followed by those who are planning to return to campuses in the near future. 

“I am really excited about our partnership with Dignity Health Woodland Clinic to quickly vaccinate education workers,” said Yolo County Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. “Getting students back to in-person learning has a myriad of health and educational benefits, and vaccinating school staff will support this group in feeling more comfortable returning to classrooms.” 

So far, Yolo County is surpassing Governor Newsom’s goal announced last week that, beginning March 1, at least 10 percent of the state’s vaccine supply would be prioritized for education workers. Yolo County is one of 35 counties actively vaccinating education workers. On February 16, Yolo County expanded eligibility to include all frontline workers in Phase 1b Tier 1 of the State of California’s vaccine prioritization framework, which included individuals who work in education. 

Yolo County will continue to prioritize vaccines for education workers in the following order: 

• K-12 education workers already working on school campuses (public, private, and charter)
• Workers in afterschool programs on already working on K-12 campuses
• Workers in higher education already working on campuses
• K-12 education workers not working on school campuses but planning to return soon
• Workers in afterschool programs not yet working on K-12 campuses but planning to return soon
• Workers in higher education not yet working on campuses but planning to return soon

“Vaccinations are an important layer of safety for our educators, including childcare providers,” said Yolo County Superintendent of Schools Garth Lewis. “We are grateful to Yolo County and Dignity Health Woodland Clinic for prioritizing vaccine doses for our teachers and classified staff. I continue to encourage all education workers to get vaccinated when appointments are offered to them.” 

If you work in education and have not yet scheduled or received your vaccine dose, please contact the Yolo County Office of Education. Yolo County vaccine clinics are posted on the County’s vaccine webpage at www.yolocounty.org/coronavirus-vaccine, with additional appointments to come. For more information about Yolo County’s COVID-19 vaccine and distribution process, visit https://www.yolocounty.org/coronavirus-vaccine. Residents can call Yolo 2-1-1 for resource information. Follow Yolo County on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/YoloCounty or Twitter at: https://twitter.com/YoloCountyCA.  

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For media and press related inquiries for Dignity Health, contact Yessenia Anderson at yessenia.anderson@dignityhealth.org. 

For media and press related inquiries for YCOE, contact Anthony Volkar at Anthony.Volkar@ycoe.org.