The COVID-19 vaccine superstructure near Petco Park will close again on Saturday due to a severe shortage of doses.
UC San Diego Health operates the superstation, and CEO Patty Maysent told The San Diego Union-Tribune that the closure will last over the weekend and through Tuesday, meaning the site will reopen early Wednesday.
Anyone who has an appointment during that time will receive a message through MyChart, the healthcare system’s electronic notification system, and will be automatically rescheduled as soon as UCSD knows more vaccine is on the way. For now, Maysent says the plan is to move all appointments back by four days, but the actual delay may depend on the offer being longer (or a little shorter).
“It’s really hard,” she said. ‘Giving vaccine is the antidote to the worst burnout you can think of. It was difficult for everyone. This is especially difficult for patients. ”
The health system was in contact with civil servants and provincial officials and was looking for any doses it could get – including doses in other provinces that were not taken up quickly. Maysent added that UCSD moved more than 6,000 doses of its own offering to the Petco Park site on Friday and has used more than 10,000 of its own doses to run the superstore in recent weeks.
This is the third closure system for the superstation, which has vaccinated more than 119,000 San Diegans – about two out of every nine people vaccinated in the country.
Other superstations and smaller sites spread across the region will continue to operate, according to country spokesman Mike Workman.
The closure is a sudden reversal of the optimism officials projected during the weekly coronavirus briefing. Cases and hospitalizations in COVID-19 continued to decline, with the province approaching the return of outdoor sports – and, shortly thereafter, limited indoor dining and gym use.
“This is one of the first times I feel we’re coming to you with a series of things that are generally good news,” Supervisor Fletcher said at the start of Wednesday’s briefing.
The good news included an announcement that San Diegans works in emergency services; childcare and education; and food and agriculture may be eligible for a coronavirus vaccine from Saturday.
About 500,000 people fall into these groups, from farm workers to security personnel to day care providers. And while many of them will be vaccinated through targeted outreach programs, the province on Thursday confirmed that San Diegans could soon be eligible, planning appointments at the more than 20 vaccination sites spread across the country.
However, it is not easy to find an appointment, as the closure of the Petco Park superstructure highlights a frustrating fact: the demand for vaccine still remains better than the supply.
The province’s current offering is prioritized for San Diegans needing their second doses, as it requires two shots of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to maximize immunity to the coronavirus.
According to the province’s vaccine panel, about 321,000 San Diegans received their first shot this afternoon, but they still need their second dose. Until they get both shots, many of those in the eligible group will find it difficult to book appointments.
The timeline for completing second doses obviously depends on the provision of vaccines. It is unclear when the province’s next group of Moderna vaccine will arrive. Fletcher said Wednesday the province is happy to know how much vaccine will arrive in three days – let alone the three-week projections promised by President Joe Biden states and territories.
There was great confusion about exactly how many doses the country had available. On Friday, the Times of San Diego reported that the country has nearly 100,000 doses available to administer and that it has recently received a significant amount of new doses. But Workman told the San Diego Union Tribune that the country had not received such a consignment, and that there were already appointments for all the ‘available’ doses recorded on the country’s dashboard.
In other words, there is talk of that offer.
Other local health systems are struggling as well. Scripps Health operates inpatient clinics for its own patients and operates the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation. But it is difficult to sustain these efforts without a steady stream of vaccine, says Dr. Ghazala Sharieff, the medical head of the health system for clinical excellence and experience.
“How do you plan something if you may not have any surplus (doses) but then you do not know what you are going to get next week?” Sharieff said. ‘I do not care what you are going to give me; just give it ahead of time, then I can plan every day and be a little more logical. ‘
UT staff writer Paul Sisson reported.