San Francisco on Monday opened the first of several coronavirus information centers in the Mission District and continued plans to reach communities hardest hit by the pandemic, even though the supply of vaccines is still very limited.
The new clinic was seen as another hopeful sign of the end of the pandemic, especially welcome after the state and the Bay Area emerged from the deadliest month so far. More than a third of COVID-19 deaths in the Bay occurred in January, with 1,677 people losing their lives last month.
The incredible toll reflects the numbers of the state and the country: nearly 15,000 California residents and more than 95,000 people in the U.S. died in January from the virus. In all, more than 441,000 Americans lost their lives to COVID-19.
However, the worst of the pandemic seems to be subsiding. Cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 peaked in late December and early January. But public health experts say the need to vaccinate people quickly and dramatically slow the spread of the disease has never been urgent. Several new variants that can partially evade vaccines are already spreading in some parts of the world and have arrived in the United States.
“We just need more vaccines to get out the door and get into the arms as quickly as possible,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s health director, said Monday at the Mission District Vaccination Clinic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that 471 cases of three different variants have been identified in at least 32 states. Scientists at Stanford University’s Clinical Virology Lab have discovered variants that were first identified in the Bay Area in the United Kingdom and Brazil, and the British variant in particular appears to be spreading in parts of Southern California.
Colfax said the variants found in California are largely covered by the approved vaccines.
At the Mission District vaccination site, located in a parking lot in 24th and Capp streets, city and state officials cheered Monday morning when the leaders of two Latino organizations that served the community throughout the pandemic received their first shots.
The Mission website is the first of the city officials to plan for a network of vaccination clinics in the area. The Department of Public Health expects to open similar sites in Bayview, Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and other neighborhoods with the highest coronavirus infection rates. The city is also working with Safeway pharmacies to bring vaccines to different neighborhoods.
“I’m very excited today,” Mayor London Breed said on Monday at the Mission Vaccination Site. “We know this is the best chance to return to the lives we all know and miss.”
California has so far administered more than 3.5 million doses of vaccine, or about 60% of its total supply.
The state on Monday unveiled letters of intent signed with Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente late last week to hand over the management of its vaccine distribution network in an effort to speed up the delivery of doses. Although the contracts have not been finalized, the letters confirm that the two health care providers in Oakland will work at or at a cost and ‘can not benefit from this agreement.’
Among other responsibilities, Blue Shield will help design a system of incentive payments to encourage vaccine providers to use their doses faster, at a higher volume and with a focus on communities affected by the coronavirus disproportionately affected by the letters. . Kaiser will oversee at least two massive vaccination sites and other efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations.
San Francisco built the infrastructure to administer 10,000 vaccine injections a day, but Colfax received only about 11,000 a week. According to Breed, San Francisco has so far received 150,000 doses and issued more than 90,000 doses. The rest is scheduled for second doses.
Although counties are allowed to offer vaccines to all residents age 65 and older, San Francisco still prioritizes health care workers, plus in-home staff and support services and long-term caregivers. So far, 104,000 of the 210,000 people in the first phase have received a dose, Colfax said.
“We saw a relatively stable condition compared to a few weeks ago, but we still have a very low vaccine,” Colfax said.
The clearance of the new premises in the Mission District depends on the offer. The Department of Health administered approximately 120 vaccinations per day during a mild launch period. The site can increase to 400 vaccinations per day as supply increases.
The Mission site is currently by invitation only, by appointment only, and serves community health workers and locals over the age of 65 in the Unidos and Salud / United in Health network.
The new site is targeted at a community affected disproportionately by the virus. Latinos in San Francisco make up more than 42% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city, despite the fact that they make up only 15% of the population, according to the most recent public health data. They are also responsible for more than 20% of deaths due to the disease.
“It’s the whole barrio to deal with this pandemic,” said Roberto Hernandez, co-founder of the Latino Task Force. ‘A lot of people we work with are the most vulnerable people, the hardest working people, minimum wage workers who have no health insurance, and they have no 401K. They have no retirement plans. This pandemic has hurt them in more ways than you can ever imagine. ”
The site opened Monday at 9 a.m. for the first appointment. By 10 a.m., Jose Ortiz, family support specialist with the nonprofit Casa Corazon, received his first dose. The 43-year-old is eligible as a community health worker as he works closely with affected families. Ortiz said everyone in his community knows at least one person who fell ill or died from the virus.
“If you work with people all the time, you have to protect yourself and your family and their family as well,” he said. Placing a clinic in ‘the core of the Mission’ is very important so that everyone can see and go. ‘
The new clinic will work with a coronavirus test site at 24 BART Square and Mission Street, which operates four days a week. The privately funded vaccination clinic originated from Unidos and Salud, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino Task Force that operated all the test areas in the Mission.
On January 22, San Francisco opened its first mass vaccination site, run by UCSF Health in partnership with the city’s Department of Public Health and private healthcare providers, on the main campus of City College San Francisco. The city is working to create a centralized appointment system for appointments, Colfax said Monday.
“This is a community that never assists and can drop someone along the way,” supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the mission, said at the opening of the vaccination site on Monday. ‘Stay there, San Franciscans. We are almost out of this and we can get to the end together. ”
Mallory Moench and Aidin Vaziri are writers of San Francisco Chronicle staff. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench, @MusiekSF