Downtown San Diego’s vaccination super station is slated to reopen Tuesday after a shipment delay of COVID-19 vaccine doses limited the county’s supply, forcing residents to reschedule their appointments.
Upon reopening, a long line of cars spiraled through the East Village for their drive-thru appointments. Hundreds of others were also doing walk-up appointments. Of course, that was typical for the downtown San Diego site.
Only those due for their second dose of the vaccine will get appointments Tuesday at the Petco Park location. With the county prioritizing second dose shots, nearly all county-run vaccination sites will focus solely on administering the vaccine to those who need their second one.
Second-dose appointments were rescheduled automatically, a county spokesperson said. Those impacted by the delays have been advised to check their MyUCSDChart account or look for an email with details about their new appointment date.
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A fierce storm on the East Coast and Midwest caused delays in shipments of the vaccine, affecting San Diego County and forcing the East Village vaccination site to close for several days again. It was the second time the Petco Park vaccine site had closed, with another shipment delay prompting it to close the first time.
Though the county was expecting a shipment of more than 52,000 vaccine doses on Tuesday, it had not arrived by the afternoon. A spokesperson for the county was hopeful it would arrive this week.
A pandemic modeling specialist told NBC 7 that interruptions will be par for the course along the vaccination effort.
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“If we had more supply in the system then we would be less vulnerable to these disruptions,” said Julie Swann, head of the industrial and systems engineering department at North Carolina State University. “But one of the reasons it has such a big impact is we are literally taking the vaccine off that production line, getting out the door and putting it into people’s arms as quickly as possible.”
A spokesperson for the county said that those who have had their second-dose appointments delayed should not worry because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says doses can be taken within 42 days of each other. When a patient receives their first dose, the county typically tries to schedule second-dose appointments within 21 days, leaving a three-week window in case of delays.
It is unclear how soon first-dose residents will get their next appointment.
