San Diego County residents age 65 and older can now be vaccinated against COVID-19 – as long as their doctor has the doses.
But with vaccine demand far exceeding supply, this is likely to be a problem.
As it stands, the county has struggled to vaccinate nursing home residents and health professionals who fall within the state’s highest priority vaccination level. There are 620,000 people in this group, and only about 80,000 have been vaccinated, although county officials say this may be an underestimate.
On Wednesday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that Californians 65 and older are now eligible for vaccination – a day after the federal government asked states to expand eligibility. Older adults are especially vulnerable to coronavirus. About 15 percent of San Diego County residents aged 80 and over who received COVID-19 died – more than one in seven.
But the state announcement is likely to generate some confusion and frustration. Case in point: Scripps Health, one of the two largest health systems in the region, sent the following statement to its members on Wednesday:
“None of the San Diego hospitals have received vaccines at this time to begin distribution to their patients, and we are waiting for a response from the government about when to expect them … At this time, please don’t call your doctor’s Scripps office because they they do not know when vaccines will be available. “
Alvarado Hospital in La Mesa and Paradise Valley Hospital in National City said they are studying the new guidelines, but are not ready to announce changes. Other systems, including UC San Diego Health and Sharp HealthCare, did not respond immediately.
More than 473,000 San Diegans are 65 or older. So far, the region has received 241,000 doses, according to the latest data from the municipality. And each person will need two doses of vaccine for total immunity.
“We don’t want to create the expectation that, suddenly, everyone 65 and older will come in and get the vaccine,” said Supervisor Nathan Fletcher during the county coronavirus briefing on Wednesday. “We can only administer the vaccines that we actually have.”
For now, the county plans to continue using its doses to vaccinate health workers. The region’s largest vaccination station, located in the back parking lot of Petco Park, is on track to immunize 5,000 people a day by the end of the week. The plan is to create three more mass vaccination sites, including one to be launched in February in South Bay and locations in North County and Eastern County.
In the week of January 25, residents of San Diegans aged 65 and over should be vaccinated in county locations, according to public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten. Essential workers, like teachers, grocery workers and police, may soon follow in February.
County officials also said that San Diego County residents will soon be able to do what people living in Philadelphia, Ohio and other parts of the country already do – sign up for alerts when it’s your turn to get vaccinated to know when and where to get your shots. The county is working with the state’s public health department to implement an enrollment system next week.
Vaccine supplies will make or destroy the county’s plans to inoculate nearly 1.9 million residents against COVID-19 by July 1, after an initially slow implementation of the vaccine.
To get there, the region will have to reach an average of 23,400 doses per day for the next five months. San Diego County currently has about 6,100 shots a day.
Fletcher also said the region plans to move from four to 12 distribution points: smaller locations across the county where people eligible for the vaccine can get the vaccine if they don’t have access through their health care provider.
The county plans to spend up to $ 100 million to finance these efforts, but expects the state or federal government to cover the costs.
“We’re taking a leap of faith,” said Fletcher. “We are going to keep our receipts and wait for the refunds to arrive.”
Dr. Davey Smith, head of infectious diseases at UCSD, hopes that some of that money will go towards hiring the necessary staff to send vaccines across the county.
“We can’t count on volunteer employees forever,” said Smith. “We are going to need real support and real infrastructure, and it comes with money to pay people for their time.”
With the pace of the pandemic with no signs of slowing down, a vaccine will be essential to stop the coronavirus. In Wednesday’s COVID-19 screening report, the county reported 3,261 new positive cases among 14,636 total test results for a 22 percent positive rate, significantly higher than the 14.2-week average positivity rate of 14.4 Percent.
An additional 54 deaths were announced on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative cost in human lives to just eight, less than 2,000.
Hospitals continued to advance, with the local census – the number of COVID-19 patients collectively occupying hospital beds – increasing from 32 to 1,802 on Tuesday. It was the first time that the daily number of patients with COVID-19 exceeded 1,800.
Wednesday’s report included 162 new COVID-related hospitalizations. The authorities, however, said the total includes hospitalizations from previous days and therefore does not represent a sudden increase in a single day.