The county’s newest vaccination superstation opened Friday morning at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for a test run of about 288 patients, the same day, a missed shipment of the Moderna vaccine raised concerns nationwide about shortened stocks.
Also on Friday, the state announced that vaccinations will be available to a wider group of people starting March 15, including those 64 and younger with cancer, obesity and other underlying conditions.
San Diego County vaccinations will be delayed for now due to limited supply, and in some cases appointments will have to be rescheduled. The county’s largest site, the UC San Diego Health Petco Super Station, will not deliver vaccinations on Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays, and appointments there are automatically rescheduled through UCSD’s MyChart, officials said.
Second doses remain the priority at all sites. The South County and East County super stations have enough stock to get through Monday, and the North County super station in San Marcos has enough stock to meet second dose agreements and a limited supply of first doses.
Nathan Fletcher, chairman of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, said Friday afternoon that the break, while unwanted, is not entirely unexpected.
“We are faced with a situation of very erratic and unstable supply chain, and we knew that situations like these, although we try to avoid them, will inevitably happen,” said Fletcher.
Even when the current situation with Moderna resolves itself, he noted, the need for second doses by those who have already received their first doses will likely create a situation where few first-dose appointments are available.
“There is a very real chance that in the coming weeks, given the current supply that we receive, there will be a period when very few first-dose appointments will be available,” said Fletcher.
California officials said Friday that people between the ages of 16 and 64 who are disabled or at high risk of morbidity and mortality from COVID-19 will be eligible for vaccination starting next month.
The move comes after weeks of debate over who will get up front in line for precious doses, which are still in short supply. Officials estimate the move will increase 4 million to 6 million people’s eligibility for the vaccine, bringing the total number of Californians to between 17 million and 20 million, or about half the state.
Ultimately, it’s up to local providers to decide who gets the vaccine immediately, with medical personnel, first responders, over-65s, teachers and key workers all vying for shots.
All vaccinations were delivered as scheduled in about an hour on Friday’s opening day at the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation run by Scripps Health using the Pfizer vaccine.
On Saturday there are still 588 drive-thru patients on the program and again on Sunday. Scripps officials said they hope to ramp up gradually over the next few weeks to inoculate as many as 5,000 people a day on the show grounds if enough vaccine is available.
“This has been the most efficient, I must say,” said Teresa McKethan, 66, a La Jolla resident who drove through in her Toyota SUV. “There are no complications at all.”
She had tried repeatedly to get an appointment on the Petco Park property, but without success. When she saw on Thursday that appointments were available at the fair grounds, she went online and scheduled both her Friday visit and the second second dose.
“People are very happy,” said Michelle Meyer, a registered nurse and 22-year-old Scripps employee. The fairground is the third vaccination station she helped set up.
“I get a lot of people crying … thank you so much for just being here,” she said. Some have told her it’s their first time outside their home since the pandemic started, and to them it’s a sign that things may be returning to normal.
The vaccinations will be administered at the Wyland Center, a cavernous building used for exhibits during the San Diego County Fair.
Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, inoculates Christian Dollahon, 66, of Oceanside Friday with the Pfizer vaccine at the new drive-thru site at Del Mar Fairgrounds.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Cars enter the building and are divided into nine separate lanes, each with three stations taking shots. A nurse will ask a few questions and check for allergies or medical conditions. The whole process takes about five minutes.
After that, each vehicle is given a timer in a plastic bag that is placed on the hood, and then the driver is instructed to drive out to the parking lot and wait there. The timer will go off in 15 minutes and, unless there is a medical response, a volunteer will take the timer and the driver is free to leave.
Continued operations depend on a weekly resupply of the vaccine, which is not certain, said Chris Van Gorder, Scripps president and CEO.
“We are blessed that we now have enough for the coming days,” said Van Gorder.
San Diego County gets a new supply every Tuesday, he said, but the vaccination stations don’t know from week to week how much of the vaccine will be available. Also, the state requires the sites to use all of the vaccine they receive and not save it for a second dose.
In recent weeks, supplies of the vaccine have been tightening, and Friday Scripps had to return some of his supplies to the county, he said.
“Each of these bottles is liquid gold,” he said. “For many people it is the light at the end of the tunnel.”
The fairground has space to spare due to the pandemic, which has caused all major events, including last year’s San Diego County Fair, to be canceled.
The possibility of opening a vaccination center on the fairgrounds was highlighted during a January 20 meeting with San Diego County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, said Carlene Moore, Fairgrounds interim CEO.
“It’s been very fast since then,” said Moore. “We are very proud to be partners” with the county and Scripps.
Two weeks ago, the Wyland Center was used to store donations for the nonprofit Goodwill Industries, she said. Those items have been moved to another building on the fair grounds.
The fairground has long been used for occasional emergency services, and the easy access to Interstate 5 is a benefit to residents across the country.
“That makes this facility important to the community,” said Moore.
It has provided emergency shelters for people and livestock during wildfires several times over the years, and last April hosted one of the county’s largest food distribution events for families affected by the pandemic.
On Friday, the province reported 817 new COVID-19 cases, 179 hospitalizations and 24 deaths. It is the fourth time in the past seven days that case numbers have fallen below 1000. So far, there have been no signs of a post-Super Bowl rebound in the cases; it usually takes 4-5 days for an infected person to show symptoms. Another encouraging sign: The total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the province has been gradually declining every day for the past 28 days, although a widespread vaccination effort will be key to ensuring these numbers remain low for good.
Staff writers Paul Sisson and Jonathan Wosen contributed to this story.