San Francisco, its Department of Public Health and several private health care providers launched the city’s first Covid-19 mass vaccination site at City College on Friday at 8 am in an effort to increase immunization among residents , regardless of health coverage.
At the moment, the drive-through website was open only to those who were contacted by their healthcare provider. Today’s run of perhaps several hundred people served as a kind of test for the thousands a day who will need to be inoculated to meet the city’s goal of vaccinating all its residents by June 30. Of those interviewed today, everyone was invited by UCSF.
Those who arrived drove down a side street and ended up in a large open car park along Friday Kahlo Way. Then, they were received by workers who approached them for ingestion and application of a questionnaire, before being referred to one of the various vaccination routes. In total, there are 23 tracks, but at most Mission Local saw seven tracks in use on Friday.
At 11:30 am, about four runways were open and operations appeared to be slow. At 1:30 pm, seven lanes were open and more than a dozen cars were waiting in line. Since the vaccine can cause side effects, the recipients must be monitored for 15 minutes and take a while.
Elizabeth Bartels and her husband arrived with their Norfolk Terrier, Mac. Bartels is over 75 years old with underlying illnesses and showed symptoms similar to Covid’s in March, she said.
She received an email about the vaccine from her UCSF MyChart system on Thursday evening at 7:00 PM and “easily” scheduled an appointment for Friday.
After Bartels was safely vaccinated, she said, “I would go out and do my own shopping instead of ordering it online, just to go out. I can consider a little travel, maybe. ”The couple plans to rent a van for a four-day camp.
Another woman, Amy, also found out that she qualified on Thursday and got a spot on Friday. After both doses, she said, she will continue to dress up and try a trip to Santa Fe. She is very excited to see her three children and eight grandchildren.
“I feel very privileged and grateful that those scientists received the vaccine for us and that I got it,” she said.
Most people who are vaccinated on the spot will receive a warning from their health care providers, such as Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente. Private providers receive most of the state’s vaccines, according to the Department of Public Health.
The City College website opened amid growing frustrations, locally and nationally, about the vaccine launch. Particularly for San Francisco, Mayor London Breed and Director of Public Health, Dr. Grant Colfax, said that erratic vaccine shipments made it difficult to plan local vaccination plans.
“Large vaccination sites like this will be essential to vaccinate people quickly and safely,” said Breed in a statement.
The massive site will remain open until 4 pm today and then resume vaccination at 8 am on Saturday and Sunday, January 24, but it is unclear whether the 8 am to 4 pm schedule will resume on Monday. It all depends on how much stock the city receives, according to the Department of Public Health.
Just on Thursday, the Department of Public Health narrowly avoided canceling appointments scheduled for vaccinations, when an order to stop the use of approximately 8,400 Modern vaccines was reversed the day before.
Currently, only health professionals or residents aged 65 and over can be vaccinated; in San Francisco, about 210,000 residents are eligible in these two categories. Since two injections are needed, 420,000 doses would be needed just to inoculate the city’s first-rate residents.
On January 20, however, the Department of Public Health and private providers “received only a quarter of these [420,000] doses, ”according to a city hall note.
The City College site is the first of three sites planned by city health officials, who hope to vaccinate up to 10,000 San Francisco residents a day. The remaining two are scheduled for the Moscone Center and the San Francisco Market in Bayview, if the offer allows.
Stephen Clark, 76, said he is a member of UCSF and applied through the Contra Costa County Health Department, but received a nomination link to the City College website. Despite his good fortune, he said others were involved in a complicated process.
“I searched forever to find the right number to call, but it wasn’t clear,” said Clark. “I’m sure that many people my age are a little confused and have no idea what to do.”
Residents who want to know when it’s their turn to get the vaccine can sign up for a vaccine notification system launched on Tuesday. The other two sites are due to open in a few weeks, Breed and Colfax said earlier this week.
But “to fully deliver this plan,” said Breed, “we need more vaccine”.
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