The California Department of Public Health recently announced that as of March 1, 2021, all providers and local health jurisdictions will move to a uniform, state-directed eligibility criteria, eliminating confusion on who is eligible to receive a vaccine on a county-by-county basis.

As counties and providers are onboarded in the coming weeks into the Statewide Vaccine Network, administered by Blue Shield of California, MyTurn.ca.gov will become the main source for Californians to sign up for appointments.

Over 500,000 vaccinations have already been administered via My Turn, and more than 1.6 million Californians have signed up for a My Turn notification. Next week, My Turn will begin piloting the use of single use codes, allowing community-based organizations, navigators or others to sign up members of disproportionately affected or other prioritized communities.

Over time, providers administering vaccines will be required to use My Turn or an electronic health record that automatically shares vaccination data with the state's immunization databases, and to work with the state to connect into the My Turn platform. The state plans to use My Turn to have greater visibility into who is getting vaccinated and how to better fine tune equity-focused allocation and outreach efforts, which will ben as a key component of the state's continued focus on vaccine equity.  

Eligibility for enrollment into the Vaccine Network has yet to be expanded from sites that has received an invitation from their Local Health Department and General Acute Care Hospitals invited by the California Department of Public Health. California Medical Association has recommended that community physician practices be onboarded into the system as soon as possible to prepare for the time when vaccine supply increases.

The state and Blue Shield have also announced an updated implementation timeline for the Statewide Vaccine Network. Details on the new timeline can be found on the CDPH website.