SAN DIEGO — UC San Diego Health, San Diego County and the Padres are teaming up to vaccinate at least 5,000 healthcare workers per day against the novel coronavirus, starting Monday.
Those partners, along with the City of San Diego, will run the Vaccination Super Station near Petco Park in an effort to safely vaccinate the 500,000 healthcare workers in the region eligible for Phase 1A-Tier categories on California's vaccine priority list. The vaccine hub will take place Monday at Petco Park from 7 a.m.-7 p.m.
Those in Phase 1A, included in the three tiers, can be vaccinated now. That list includes healthcare and behavioral health workers and first responders, paramedics, national guard members and firefighters. Then Phase 1B, which includes essential workers, like teachers and grocery store workers, as well as those older than 75.
The Health & Human Services Agency will continue to set up Points of Dispensing, PODS and vaccination sites throughout the entire county as they did for testing.
News 8 spoke to SANDAG Chair and Mayor of Encinitas, Catherine Blakespear, who also took part in a county and health conference Friday that discussed the region’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Blakespear expressed her concerns over the rollout.
“The county has a sense of urgency clearly and everybody is working very hard on it, but the pieces aren’t quite in place to have a fast distribution of this vaccine,” said Blakespear.
Blakespear added that once we see rapid vaccine distribution, the county shutdown will most likely be lifted sooner.
“About 60,000 doses in three weeks, that’s about 20,000 each week, and we have 3.4 million people in this county,” said Blakespear.
She said as a county we need a dedicated effort to ramp that up, it’s going to take a while and that’s concerning.
Blakespear told News 8 that we have the vaccine available, we have the resources, and several are currently being trained to administer the vaccine.
The Health & Human Services Services Agency is setting up Points of Dispensing, PODS and vaccination sites throughout the entire county as they did for testing.
The vaccination site Monday is located at the Padres-controlled Tailgate Lot, a space located on Imperial Avenue near Petco Park. Healthcare workers will be required to present proof they are healthcare workers when they arrive onsite. Healthcare workers will be able to stay in their vehicle to receive the vaccine and will remain onsite for 15 minutes to be monitored for any side effects.
Tips for healthcare workers making an appointment:
- Healthcare workers are encouraged to first contact their healthcare providers to request the vaccine, then make an appointment
- Do not schedule an appointment if you have COVID-19 or are sick
- Wear a mask
- Forms of proof to be presented at the site include: employee ID badge with a photo or other documents, signed letter from their employer on facility letterhead and a photo ID or a payment stub or timesheet from their healthcare employer or in-home supportive services with a photo ID
