SUPPLIES OF SHOTS GO UP AHEAD OF ELIGIBILITY EXPANSION
All Californians 50 and older qualify for COVID-19 vaccine starting Thursday
Days before all Californians 50 and older become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine, the region’s supply of doses is steadily increasing.
Last week’s vaccine supply rose 23 percent compared with the week before, according to county spokesperson Mike Workman, who did not provide a precise number of doses. But based on previous figures he has shared with The San Diego UnionTribune, it’s likely that around 110,000 doses flowed into the county.
That’s more than the 9 percent uptick county officials were expecting. And while it’s unclear how much vaccine the region will receive this week, the county expects another increase.
“They all appear to be increasing,” said Workman in an email, referring to vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson.
That trend will need to continue to accommodate the roughly 590,000 San Diegans between 50 and 64 years old who become eligible for the vaccine on Thursday — though some of them may have already been eligible, depending on their employment or medical history, among other factors. On April 15, all Californians 16 and older become eligible for a coronavirus vaccine. Those 50 and older likely won’t be able to schedule appointments through MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov), the state’s vaccine notification and scheduling system, until
Thursday, according to the California Department of Public Health. But they can already book appointments at the vaccine superstations in La Mesa and Chula Vista, provided that the appointment date is on or after Thursday, according to a spokesperson for Sharp HealthCare, which runs both sites. A spokesperson for Albertsons said Californians between 50 and 64 will have to wait until Thursday to schedule appointments at nearby locations. A CVS representative said the same, adding that the pharmacy chain would update its website by Saturday at the latest. Spokespersons for Ralphs and Walgreens did not directly say when they’d open appointments, but implied that they, too, would wait until Thursday.
The region’s supply issues aren’t quite a thing of the past. On Monday, Scripps Health announced that the vaccine superstation at the Del Mar Fairgrounds will close Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday because the health system received fewer doses than it expected from the county. The mass immunization site, which vaccinates around 2,000 to 3,000 people a day, uses the Pfizer vaccine.
Researchers say that picking up the pace of vaccinations is key to avoiding yet another surge of coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. So is adhering to basic public health guidelines such as masking, social distancing and avoiding large indoor gatherings.
That formula has worked for San Diego County so far. On Monday, the county reported 290 new COVID-19 cases and no deaths. There are currently 198 San Diegans in the hospital with COVID-19; one month ago, the figure was 504.
“I am cautiously optimistic,” said Natasha Martin, an infectious disease modeler at UC San Diego. “In the last few months, we have reduced transmission to an unprecedented low level.”
But Martin worries about what she sees across other parts of the nation, where cases are beginning to increase due to a combination of reopening and the rise of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant first spotted in the U.K.
Last week, the U.S. reported 61,583 new coronavirus cases a day, according to a New York Times analysis. The previous week, the figure was 54,949. That’s a 12 percent uptick.
Hospitalization trends lag behind cases, but there’s evidence of a rise there as well. The latest seven-day average of new COVID-19 patients admitted into hospitals across the U.S. was 4,693, up 1 percent from the week before.
“I would encourage people in San Diego to recognize that what is occurring in other places could occur here,” Martin said. “But things have been trending in the right direction, and I think it can be avoided if we maintain a high level of vigilance.”