Starting Monday, the state of California says it will have the capacity to administer 3 million COVID-19 vaccines a week thanks to a new statewide vaccine network being administered by Blue Shield of California.State Health officials do not know when they will have vaccine supply to hand out that many doses a week, but have built the network to do it and by April, and say the capacity will be up to 4 million doses a week. The new network from Blue Shield will change how California has been distributing vaccines since December.California will soon begin the rollout on the network, and counties and medical providers will be onboarded in waves. All providers and local health jurisdictions will also move to a uniform and state-directed eligibility criteria to remove the confusion surrounding who can get the vaccine.For Northern California, Wave 1 includes San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties, while Wave 2 includes Amador, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Solano, Sutter and Tuolumne counties.Wave 3 includes Alpine, Contra Costa, Mendocino, Yolo and Yuba counties.The website myturn.ca.gov will become the main place to sign up for your COVID-19 vaccine appointment."All who vaccinate, except those in the federal programs, will be required to use MytTurn for scheduling appointments," said California Secretary of Government Agencies Yolanda Richardson.Related | What California vaccine tier are you in? Take our quizBlue Shield has already contracted with more than 30 providers that will be giving the shots. Providers include big-name entities like Kaiser as well as small community clinics and at least one Pharmacy Chain. As counties are phased into the network in the coming weeks more providers will be added.Blue Shield's President and CEO said his team is well aware of the importance of their job."These vaccines are probably the most valuable commodities on the face of the planet right now, in that they provide a high degree of protection of what has proven to be the most infectious and deadly disease we have seen in our lifetime," said Paul Markovich.The state has signed a contract with Blue Shield to administer the network that is not to exceed $15 million.Blue Shield will continue to work with local health jurisdictions, but the healthcare non-profit will be in charge of allocations and distribution to providers. The MyTurn website will then become the required place to sign up for all vaccine doses coming from state stocks. The number of people signing up and their information will help determine how many vaccines go to each county based on supply and demand."The outcome data will then, in turn, inform the next week's allocation decisions, recommended by Blue Shield which will be approved by the state to ensure we are getting vaccines into arms as quickly as possible," said Richardson.The state is still encouraging people to sign up for MyTurn now so that they can be notified when they are eligible and in the coming weeks be able to make an appointment.The one sign-up exception in the future will be for anyone making an appointment with a federally operated program. Federal vaccine programs will not be available for sign-up on MyTurn.