In an effort to administer the vaccine to a person at higher risk for coronavirus complications, San Diego County has already approved all residents 75 and older for vaccination.
Officials said the move was prompted by a slowdown in vaccination sites for COVID-19.
“We take this action today to add individuals 75 years of age or older because they are most at risk,” said Dr. Wilma J. Wooten, public health officer for San Diego County.
In an effort to administer the vaccine to people most at risk for coronavirus complications, San Diego County has now approved all residents 75 and older for vaccination, reports Melissa Adan of NBC 7
San Diegans residents who want the injection can now make appointments at the Petco Park supersite and elsewhere in the county where the injection is being administered, officials said.
Although the county last week approved medical centers to start vaccinating people aged 65 and over, following a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control, the county itself has so far not expanded the pool beyond Level 1A, which mainly consists of of residents of health and assisted care centers Caregivers.
Some between the ages of 65 and 75 were vaccinated in downtown San Diego’s “super station” on Monday, but a representative from UC San Diego Health, who works in the city center, said availability was only open to age group for one day due to the low volume of appointments.
So far, only UC San Diego Health and Scripps Health have expanded vaccination on the network to patients age 65 and older.
Scripps said it is using the remaining vaccine stock from its initial batch distributed to its own healthcare professionals and said it has not received any additional vaccines from the government for use in the population aged 65 and over.
California health officials are recommending a break in the distribution of a particular batch of the Modern coronavirus vaccine after it caused a severe allergic reaction in a small number of people, including some who received the vaccine at Petco Super Vaccination Station San Diego Park. Nicole Gomez reports.
Authorities emphasized that appointments are needed at county locations and that anyone who arrives without an appointment will be refused.
The county has also received help from Cal Fire EMTs and paramedics who administer vaccines at qualified nursing facilities.
Starting next week, anyone 65 and older will be able to get the injection, Wooten said on Monday in a press release.
“It remains our intention to expand vaccines to people aged 65 and over in the week of January 25, depending on the availability of the vaccine.”
Meanwhile, at UC San Diego Health, authorities are concerned about overloaded phone lines and are asking patients not to call healthcare providers directly, asking them to wait to be contacted.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria wants to speed up the coronavirus vaccination process. He joined with about three dozen mayors from around the country to send a letter to President-elect Joe Biden asking that vaccines be delivered directly to cities, instead of the doses going to the state first, and then being distributed to counties. . Audra Stafford reports from NBC 7.
Patients at serious risk of COVID-19 infection and with morbidities are being prioritized by UCSD, officials said. Those who are eligible “will receive a direct invitation to be vaccinated through their electronic medical record or a direct call from their health care provider”.
Last Wednesday, state public health officials followed the CDC’s guidance in announcing that people aged 65 and over could now receive the vaccine, joining the next eligible level of emergency workers, teachers, providers child care and food and agriculture workers grouped in Level 1B. The decision perplexed some employees, who said they did not even have enough doses to vaccinate Level 1A people.
San Diego has approximately 620,000 health professionals and long-term residents in health facilities at Level 1A. Making people 65 and older eligible for the vaccine adds another 500,000 people to the mix.
“It’s great that the state said, ‘Hey, people 65 and over are eligible to get the vaccines,’ but that requires counties to actually have the vaccines,” said county supervisor Nathan Fletcher.
California received more than 2.4 million doses of vaccine as of last Monday, but only a third have been injected. Local governments have established massive vaccine distribution sites in the hope of convincing state and federal authorities to send them more doses. San Diego opened a supposed supercenter last week in the Tailgate Park parking lot outside Petco Park, where thousands of people took pictures. The authorities hope to increase to 5,000 vaccinations a day at that location. On Saturday, 4,345 were shot there, officials said.
People with appointments at Tailgate Park ran into long lines, whether on foot or in a vehicle – in fact, in the late afternoon, the lines meandered through the city streets all the way back to a nearby highway exit. And NBC 7 spoke to a person in the queue who was actually 66 years old, who said that despite his age, he had been registered and was scheduled to take his chance.
The governor’s announcement that people 65 and older were eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine gave half a million San Diegans hope to get it. Bridget Naso of NBC 7 has more details.