San Diego County residents 65 and older can now be vaccinated against COVID-19 – provided their healthcare provider has the doses.
But because the demand for vaccines is far more than the supply, it is probably a problem.
As it is, the country has struggled to vaccinate the nursing home residents and health workers who fall into the state’s highest level of vaccination. There are 620,000 people in this group, and only about 80,000 have been vaccinated, although provincial officials say that may be an underestimation.
On Wednesday, Gov. Newsom announced that Californians 65 and older are now eligible for a vaccination – a day after the federal government called on states to extend the election. Older adults are particularly vulnerable to the coronavirus. About 15 percent of San Diego County residents, age 80 and older, who received COVID-19 have died – more than one in seven.
But the state’s announcement is likely to cause confusion and frustration. Example: 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 the vaccinations to distribute to their patients at the moment, and we’re waiting to hear from the government when you should expect this … Do not call your doctor from Scripps now. office as they do not know when the 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 immediately respond.
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 country. And each person needs two doses of vaccine for full immunity.
“We just do not want to create an expectation that everyone 65 and older will suddenly just roll in and get the vaccine,” supervisor Nathan Fletcher said during Wednesday’s coronavirus briefing. “We can only administer vaccines that we really have.”
Currently, the country plans to continue its doses to vaccinate health workers. The largest vaccination center in the region, located in the parking lot of the Petco Park tailgate, 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 South Bay in February and sites in North and East County.
According to the public health officer, dr. Wilma Wooten, San Diegans 65 and above will be able to be vaccinated at provincial sites by the week of January 25. Essential workers such as teachers, grocery stores and police officers may follow in February soon.
Provincial officials also said San Diego County residents will soon be able to do what people living in Philadelphia, Ohio and other parts of the state can already do – sign up for alerts when it’s their turn. to be vaccinated so they know when and where to get their shots. The province is working with the state’s public health department to set up a registration system next week.
The vaccine provision will make or break the province’s plans to vaccinate nearly 1.9 million residents against COVID-19 by July 1 after the initially sluggish vaccination of vaccine.
To get there, the region will have to increase to an average of 23,400 shots per day over the next five months. Currently, San Diego County stands at about 6,100 shots per day.
Fletcher also said the region plans to have from four to twelve distribution points: smaller places in the country where people who are eligible for a vaccine can get their chance if they do not have access through their healthcare provider.
The province plans to pay up to $ 100 million to bankrupt these efforts, but hopes the state or federal government will eventually cover the costs.
“We’m taking a leap of faith,” Fletcher said. “We are going to hold on to our receipts and hope the refunds will come.”
Dr. Davey Smith, UCSD’s head of infectious diseases, hopes to appoint some of the money to employ the staff needed to get shots in the country.
“We can not rely on volunteers forever,” Smith said. “We will need real support and real infrastructure, and that means money to pay people for their time.”
As the rate of the pandemic shows no signs of slowing down, a vaccine is essential to stop the coronavirus. In Wednesday’s COVID-19 detection report, the province reported 3,261 new positive cases among 14,636 total test results for a positive rate of 22 percent, significantly higher than the two-week average positivity rate of 14.4 percent.
An additional 54 deaths were announced Wednesday, bringing the cumulative cost of human lives to just eight out of 2,000.
Hospitals continued to tread water, with the local census – the number of COVID-19 patients jointly occupying hospital beds – rising from 32 to 1,802 on Tuesday. This was the first time that the daily number of COVID-19 patients exceeded 1800.
Wednesday’s report included 162 new COVID-related hospitalizations. However, officials said the total hospital admission from previous days was included and therefore did not represent a sudden increase in a single day.