While the COVID-19 vaccination system near Petco Park will reopen Tuesday, UC San Diego and the province are still awaiting the delivery of vaccines delayed by winter storms that swept much of the U.S.
The news comes as the country crosses another gruesome milestone – more than 500,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, highlighting the need for a vaccine to control the worst pandemic the world has encountered in a century.
For the record:
18:01, 22 February 2021A San Diego County spokesman initially told the Union Tribune that Petco Park’s super station will remain closed Tuesday. However, UC San Diego issued a statement Monday afternoon saying the superstation will reopen; the story has been corrected to recount it.
According to spokesman Mike Workman, the country received 10,000 vaccine doses on Monday, but it is waiting for more than 50,000 doses to arrive this week. The latest shipment was split equally between Moderna and Pfizer, but most delayed doses in the region come from Moderna.
Petco Park Superstore, managed by UCSD Health, administers the Moderna vaccine exclusively and UCSD has sent relocation notifications via its MyChart electronic health system.
“We apologize and will automatically reschedule your appointment once the delivery of the vaccine has been confirmed,” the notice read. “You do not have to take any action to reschedule.”
It is unclear whether the reopening of the Petco Park site has led to new doses arriving in the region, or a redistribution of current doses. A spokesman for Scripps Health said the health system was returning a portion of the Moderna vaccine supply to help roll out the region, but the spokesman did not know if these doses would be used at the Petco Park location.
UCSD Health and the province on Sunday launched the sixth vaccine station in the region at RIMAC Arena. UCSD has been using the site to vaccinate its own patients and staff since February 8, but now offers vaccination to San Diegans who are currently eligible, including 65 people and older, health care workers and residents and staff for long-term care facilities.
The RIMAC site, also known as the North Central Vaccination Superstation, is located at Hopkins Drive 9730 and is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The place is a walkway with free parking. Like all other vaccination sites in San Diego, you should make an appointment with more information about vaccinationsuperstationsd.com.
RIMAC will first offer the Pfizer vaccine until delayed shipments arrive from Moderna, according to a provincial news release issued Sunday.
According to a spokesman for Scripps Health, the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstructure, which also offers only Pfizer vaccine, announced Monday morning that there are about 600 appointments available for Monday, 800 for Tuesday and 350 for Wednesday.
Visit myturn.ca.gov, the state’s online scheduling system, to make an appointment at the driveway in Del Mar.
While the ongoing problems with vaccine provision in San Diego County mean that some people will receive their second vaccine dose later than the three- or four-week interval recommended for Pfizer and Moderna, respectively, local researchers say the exact timing is less more important than making sure you get it. a second shot that maximizes immunity to the coronavirus.
With more doses of Pfizer than Moderna at some of the vaccines in the region, some San Diegans who got their first chance from Moderna may want to get their second at Pfizer. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises that the clinical trials that have tested the safety and efficacy of these vaccines have not tested the effect of mixing and adaptation.
“Every effort must be made to determine which vaccine product was received as the first dose, to ensure that the vaccine range is completed with the same product,” reads an advisory document issued by the agency on 10 February.
The CDC does say that it is good to exchange vaccines “in exceptional situations”, such as when someone does not know what vaccine they received for the first dose, or runs out of vaccine supplies. But with delays in the region’s doses expected within days, and the CDC says you can keep your second dose six weeks after the first – or, if necessary, later – local health systems, stick to current plans. Spokesmen for Scripps Health and Sharp HealthCare, the two largest systems in the region, said they only offer the second dose of Pfizer appointments to those who received the Pfizer vaccine for their first survey.
Despite the recent slowdown in the region’s vaccination in the region, San Diego’s coronavirus statistics continue to improve. On Monday, the province reported 321 new COVID-19 cases. It is 11 days in a row that the region has had less than 1,000 cases.
The report also notes 459 COVID-19 hospitalizations. It would be a big stir if it were new hospitalizations, but it is not so. County spokesman Workman explained that the latest issue reflects a backlog in patient records from the increase in November and December. The daily COVID-19 census, which reports the current number of San Diegans in the hospital due to coronavirus infections, dropped to 639. Nearly a month ago, the count was 1,528.
There is another figure of the coronavirus that is likely to raise eyebrows: the country reported negative COVID-19 deaths on Monday.
After proving their records, provincial officials determined that a person who died of COVID-19 was actually a Los Angeles resident.