OVER 1M PEOPLE HAVE RECEIVED VACCINE

Fletcher cites number as measure of success in San Diego County

The number of San Diego County residents who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine passed 1 million Sunday as dozens of clinics across the region continue to ramp up their vaccination efforts.

“This is a milestone that is cause for celebration,” county Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Sunday. “San Diego has moved very rapidly.”

Noting that San Diego County is among the leading counties statewide in vaccine doses administered per resident, Fletcher said surpassing 1 million people shows that local officials have successfully combated vaccine skepticism.

He also said it’s crucial that San Diego’s vaccination campaign has prioritized senior citizens and people with underlying health conditions, so those who have received vaccines are a strategically targeted group of 1 million people.

“As important as how many and how fast is who we have vaccinated,” said Fletcher, stressing that a key goal has been alleviating pressure on the health care system from COVID-19 cases.

County officials say more than 600,000 people are fully vaccinated, meaning they have received either

one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or two doses of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.

Roughly 38 percent of the county’s 3.34 million residents have received at least one dose, and more than 22 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the San Diego County Health & Human Services Agency.

Those numbers are expected to increase sharply in coming weeks with people age 50 and up becoming eligible last Thursday, and people age 16 and up becoming eligible April 15.

Public health experts estimate that 85 percent of residents will need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity, the point at which the virus struggles to continue spreading because it has become hard to find people to infect.

Some local vaccination clinics were closed Sunday for the Easter holiday, or had limited hours. But others remained open, including a large county-run clinic on Oxford Street in Chula Vista.

Citlali Hernandez of San Ysidro, who got her first shot of the Pfizer vaccine there on Sunday afternoon, called the experience a major relief.

Hernandez, 19, works at a Jack-in-the-Box fast food restaurant and said she sometimes feels uneasy at work because you never know which customers might have the virus, especially because people can be contagious even if they don’t have symptoms.

“I think I will feel less scared when I am at work,” said Hernandez, adding that she was feeling no side effects shortly after her shot on Sunday.

Hernandez said she is scheduled to return to the same clinic for a second shot of the Pfizer vaccine in three weeks.

Nearly 19 million vaccine doses have been given statewide. Gov. Gavin Newsom said during a visit to San Diego on Friday that California expects to receive 2.4 million total doses this week — a 33 percent spike from two weeks ago.

Fletcher said he expects the county to reach the 2 million milestone much faster than it reached 1 million, partly because of increased supply and partly because a solid infrastructure of more than three dozen clinics is in place.

The region’s capacity to give shots far exceeds the supply coming in.

Locations run by the county, health systems and other vaccine providers can inoculate about 35,000 people a day. So they could handle 245,000 doses per week, about double what the county has been receiving.

Fletcher said last week that there are plans in place that could increase the 35,000 daily vaccine capacity to about 50,000.

Those numbers don’t include vaccine doses sent directly to pharmacies, San Diego Veterans Affairs, the military, Native American tribes and other groups.