TEACHERS, OFFICERS FILING IN FOR VACCINE
10 percent of region’s 16-and-over population now fully inoculated
After months waiting their turns, law enforcement officers and teachers are now front and center in San Diego County’s coronavirus vaccination effort.
About 3,000 local teachers were vaccinated over the weekend at locations operated by UC San Diego Health and Sharp HealthCare, according to the California Schools Voluntary Benefits Association, while local police officers and deputy sheriffs began rolling through a drive-thru vaccination clinic operated by Scripps Health on Monday.
They add to what has become a mountain of vaccinations with nearly 930,000 doses already administered, including more than 272,000 who have now received two doses, meaning that 10 percent of the region’s population age 16 and older is now fully vaccinated.
At the moment, all coronavirus trends are moving in the right direction. Vaccination rates are climbing while case rates continue to decline, hitting 269 Sunday, following 262 on Saturday after plateauing generally in the 400-to-500 range for weeks.
Daily numbers generally under 300, if sustained over weeks, would allow San Diego County to move to a less restrictive tier in the state’s reopening system, which is due for a weekly rankings update today.
As vaccination touches a growing percentage of the local population, decreases in new case rates become more sustainable. The pace of vaccination, however, is entirely decided by how many new doses are making it into the region from manufacturers.
The county health department said Monday that it expects about 46,000 doses of vaccine to arrive early in the week, about evenly split between those from manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer.
An additional 47,000 are on order for later in the week, though delivery is never perfectly predictable.
A county official said in an email that the number of incoming Mod
erna doses remains anemic and, for the time being, those that do arrive will be used to give second shots to people who have already received their first shots.
Teachers and law enforcement officers, though, are not likely to find themselves getting turned down when they turn up their sleeves. The county will reserve 20 percent of incoming inventory for teachers and 10 percent for law enforcement.
The drive-thru clinic, held on the top floor of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla’s parking garage Monday, was staffed by about 20 employees and volunteers, who guided guests through check-in, vaccination and a 15-minute waiting period to monitor them for side effects.
About 200 officers, deputies and others working in the broader category of emergency services were scheduled to get their shots, just days after they became eligible on Saturday. “I work in a jail. We’re around COVID-positive people every day,” said Craig Webster, a detentions deputy at the Vista jail and one of those vaccinated at the clinic. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder echoed that sentiment. The moment held special significance for the health system executive, as he’s the county’s reserve assistant sheriff and a former police officer.
“We’ve been lobbying the county and others for law enforcement for a long time because, as first responders, they’re out on the scene the same as the fire department is,” he said. “It’s personal for me as well. I love to see these deputies and these police officers getting vaccinated now.”
Linda Woods, a pharmacist who had recently retired after a 40-year career, was one of those who helped put shots in arms, calling the vaccine “the glimmer of hope that people need.”
Scripps plans to inoculate more law enforcement officers today at its Del Mar Fairgrounds vaccine superstation. But it’s unclear how much demand there will be for appointments. After considerable controversy around law enforcement officers not becoming eligible for vaccine until this weekend, Van Gorder said he was surprised to learn that most officers at police departments for Chula Vista, Coronado, Carlsbad, Escondido, El Cajon and Oceanside had already gotten their shots, as well as the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.
“It appears most of the departments are already vaccinated — a little bit ahead of their tier,” he said.
Van Gorder added that, in some cases, officers have been vaccinated with doses that would otherwise have gone to waste, but said it’s highly unlikely there would be enough spare doses to vaccinate whole departments. It was not clear Monday exactly how many doses had already been administered to law enforcement officers. County officials did not provide a clear accounting of the numbers, directing inquiries to local law enforcement agencies which also did not have immediate answers Monday afternoon.
According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, there are about 8,000 patrol officers and detectives in the San Diego metropolitan region. The San Diego Office of Education estimates there are about 80,000 local school employees eligible to be vaccinated.