PETCO PARK VACCINE SITE TO SHUT DOWN
Padres season begins soon; new station opens in Oceanside
After putting more than 200,000 coronavirus vaccine shots into the arms of San Diegans, the mass immunization site near Petco Park will close permanently at the end of Saturday.
A spokesperson for UC San Diego Health, which runs the site, informed The San Diego Union-Tribune of the closure on Monday. She added that UC San Diego hopes to get anyone still waiting for a second vaccine dose at the site their shot by the end of the week.
There are likely many thousands of people who are in that position. The superstation offers the Moderna vaccine, which requires two shots to maximize immunity against the coronavirus. More than 120,000 people have gotten a first vaccine dose at the location, but only around 85,000 have received a second dose.
Those figures don’t include people who got their first dose at the Petco Park site and went elsewhere for their second shot, or those who will be inoculated within the next few days.
Anyone who still has a vaccination appointment at the location will receive a message through MyChart, UC San Diego’s electronic notification system. The health system is urging those who don’t yet have a second dose appointment to schedule one by calling (800) 926-8273 or 211 — but only if you also got your first shot at the downtown site.
The superstation, located at Petco Park’s tailgate parking lot, was the first mass immunization site in the county, and it served as a model for other such sites across the state and nation. The county, UC San Diego, the city of San Diego and the Padres came together to launch the superstation on Jan. 11. But with the Padres baseball season set to begin in April, the site’s closure was inevitable.
The superstation has opened, closed and reopened in sync with the region’s shaky vaccine supply. That has at times
sparked widespread confusion and frustration among San Diegans who have been abruptly notified that their appointment was canceled. And it has made UC San Diego wary of helping set up another mass immunization site, though Dr. David Brenner, vice chancellor for health sciences, says the health system is open to doing so — with the San Diego Convention Center as a possible future location.
“We’re delighted to help the county with this, like we did with Petco,” Brenner said. “But we really have to have a more sane vaccine distribution system going forward. Because otherwise, it just leaves everyone terribly vulnerable to all these cancellations.” The region’s vaccine rollout has changed considerably since the downtown superstation first opened. More than 715,000 San Diegans have gotten a coronavirus vaccine, and the county now has five other superstations in La Jolla, Chula Vista, La Mesa, San Marcos and Del Mar.
Vaccine once routed from the county to the Petco Park site will now flow to these locations, as well as other sites scattered throughout the region — including a new site that opens in Oceanside today.
The North Coastal Health and Human Services Facility on Mission Avenue, a block east of Interstate 5, will be able to administer as many as 700 shots a day, county officials said. It will replace a clinic that opened Jan. 24 at the North Coastal Live Well Center on Ocean Ranch Boulevard and topped out at 300 vaccinations a day.
A crew of 13 National Guard medics and administrators will run the clinic with assistance from the county. The new Oceanside location has scheduled a total of 50 first-dose appointments and several seconddose appointments for today. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will be offered at the site.
The facility also can administer the new Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine when it becomes available, said Jennifer BransfordKoons, the county’s vaccine operations director.
The site is located in the 92058 ZIP code, which has been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. There have been around 9,619 coronavirus infections per 100,000 residents in the area, compared with roughly 7,926 per 100,000 residents for the county as a whole.
“This is in the middle of the Latino community that will be able to walk here,” said Oceanside Mayor Esther Sanchez.
The site is also within steps of the Eastside and Crown Heights neighborhoods and a short drive from the San Luis Rey Valley. And it sits along one of the city’s main public transit thoroughfares.
Residents within the ZIP code will have priority for appointments, but people from throughout the region will be accepted, officials said.
“This is a great day for Oceanside and a great day for the county,” said county Supervisor Jim Desmond, who participated in a news conference at the facility along with Sanchez, San Marcos Councilwoman María Nuñez and others to announce the opening.
Beginning today, the site will be open from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays. Appointments can be made through MyTurn, the state’s online vaccine notification and scheduling system (myturn.ca.gov), or by calling 211 for older San Diegans who don’t own a computer.
Whether the new site in Oceanside actually doles out 700 shots a day will depend on supply, which continues to be unpredictable. Case in point: The Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation, run by Scripps Health, will close on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday due to a low supply of Pfizer vaccine. A spokesperson for Scripps said that anyone whose appointment is canceled will be notified through MyTurn and automatically rescheduled to a later date.
On Monday, the county reported 178 new coronavirus infections, one new hospitalization and no additional COVID-19 deaths.