What you need to know
- As part of Phase 1A of the vaccine deployment plan, front-line workers and health care personnel will be the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, followed by patients and long-term care staff. The first patient was vaccinated on Monday
- San Diego County received a supply of 28,000 doses of vaccine the week of December 14; a local military health center received an undisclosed amount of doses
- Rady Children’s received the Modern vaccine on Monday, days after the FDA approved it for emergency use and sent it nationwide for distribution.
San Diego County long-term care patients were expected to begin receiving the COVID-19 vaccine Monday, advancing the region’s efforts to immunize the most vulnerable patients first from the new coronavirus.
Surrounded by more than a dozen Sharp HealthCare caregivers, Carlos Alegre, 72, became what is believed to be the first patient in San Diego County to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday. .
Because Alegre is a long-term care patient at Birch Patrick Specialty Nursing Medical Center at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center, he is among those considered the highest priority for vaccination, according to the Advisory Committee on Practice of Vaccination. immunization of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Alegre, who has been patient on the premises for about a year and a half, sat quietly when he received the shot and when the applause came from the people he affectionately called “his family.”
“They asked me if I wanted it,” I said, “Sure, no problem,” Alegre said of being the first to receive the vaccine. “The only problem is that I wake up too early to shower, put on clothes … But they gave me new shoes, so that’s fine. ”
San Diego County received 28,000 doses of the vaccine last week. To date, medical centers have prioritized front-line health workers who are most at risk for COVID-19 exposure. But residents and long-term care staff are also included in the Centers for Disease Control’s highest priority group.
Other members of the Birch Patrick specialist nursing facility and some patients from Sharp’s Villa Coronado will also be vaccinated on Monday.
The Modern COVID-19 vaccine arrives in San Diego County
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine arrived in San Diego on December 21, 2020.
Rady Children’s Hospital announced Monday that it had received its first delivery of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine, one of 21 sites in California that received doses of the newest vaccine.
The second COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Federal Drug Administration began shipping nationwide over the weekend,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday that the state would receive 672,600 doses over the weekend to distribute them to a total of 31 locations. It was unclear how many doses San Diego County would receive or what locations they would receive.
The vaccine, which does not need to be stored at a temperature as low as Pfizer, will be distributed to more rural areas.
Meanwhile, California was expecting another 233,025 doses of Pfizer this week. Rady Children’s Hospital received its second shipment of the Pfizer vaccine on Monday.
The hospital said that with both Pfizer and Moderna shipments, they were able to start scheduling vaccines for their next wave of staff.
“This latest shipment is another big step forward, allowing us to complete our higher-risk staff and start offering the vaccine to people in our high-risk categories,” the hospital said in a statement.
Both vaccines are close to 95% effective and require two doses over a period of several weeks.
Photos: Coronavirus vaccine in San Diego
Timeline: Launch of vaccines in San Diego County
Almost immediately after the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was approved in the United States, doses were sent to major cities in the country. San Diego County received its first batch on Monday, Dec. 14 and was expected to have 28,000 doses for distribution by the end of the week. The Department of Defense also sent separate batches of the vaccine to the San Diego Naval Medical Center (which also gave doses at Pendleton Naval Camp Hospital) to protect critical workers from military health.
On Tuesday, Dec. 15, local hospitals and military facilities began administering vaccines to their critical care health workers, starting at San Diego Naval Medical Center and Rady Children’s Hospital.
Brittanee Randle made history in San Diego as the first non-military resident to obtain the COVID-19 vaccine.
The first non-military resident in San Diego County to receive the vaccine was emergency nurse Britanee Randle, 27, who worked at Rady Children’s Hospital for two years.
“It was okay!” Randle said. “The person who administered it was amazing. I’m actually scared of the needles and I didn’t even feel them.”
Randle shared his story with us here.
NBC 7’s Bridget Naso has more information on how the first COVID-19 vaccines were used in San Diego.
Among the San Diego military community, Lt. Catherine Senoyuit was the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Dec. 15, at San Diego Naval Medical Center.
On Wednesday, December 16, four more medical facilities in San Diego County began administering the coronavirus vaccine: UC San Diego Health; Camp Pendleton Naval Hospital (administered doses from San Diego Naval Medical Center); Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center in Grantville; and Palomar Health.
Palomar Health said it plans to provide all staff who agree to take both doses of the vaccine within six weeks. Its first recipient was respiratory therapist Jon Hammer, also vaccinated on Wednesday, December 16th.
Respiratory therapist Jon Hammer was the first Palomar Health employee to receive the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on December 16, 2020.
On Thursday, December 17, Scripps Health began administering the vaccine.
Scripps said it will administer the new vaccine “based strictly on federal, state and county guidelines, focusing first on health workers who are most at risk and then move to later levels based on the same criteria.”
Keith Darce of Scripps Health said Thursday, Dec. 17, that the facility had received 72 percent of the doses it had requested for level 1 vaccination.
Meanwhile, Kaiser Permanente said it planned to launch coronavirus vaccines on Thursday, Dec. 17 at its Kearny Mesa location.
The Dec. 17 batch given to Kaiser Permanente was part of the initial allocation of 525 doses from the medical facility he had received from the county’s 28,000 doses this week.
The San Diego Vaccine Plan: Which Communities Will Get First?
The administration of the vaccine to the public will be a three-stage process in which priority will be given to health workers and long-term care workers and residents, followed by essential workers, after adults over the age of 65 or with medical problems. .
The 28,000 doses delivered around San Diego last week will be used to vaccinate 72% of the nearly 40,000 people who “work in acute care, psychiatric and hospital hospitals and have the highest risk of contracting COVID-19.” .
“We first need to vaccinate our most at-risk acute health personnel,” said Dr. Wilma Wooten, the county’s public health officer. “After all members of this group have gotten the first dose, we will move on to our next priority group.”
Residents and employees of specialty nurses are also part of the county’s top priority group.
The 28,000 recipients of the initial group will receive their second dose when more Pfizer vaccine arrives in the region, the county added.
After vaccinating this first group, additional doses will arrive in San Diego County and these doses will be used to vaccinate the most acute health workers.
In phase 2 of the vaccine launch, critical workers who are not included in phase 1 will be eligible for the vaccine, as will children and young adults under the age of 30. Phase 3 includes the rest of the United States.
The coronavirus vaccine is expected to be available to the general public in the spring of 2021, the San Diego County Communications Office said.
When this happens, the vaccine should be available through health care providers, local pharmacies, community clinics, or county vaccination sites.
San Diego County adds all coronavirus vaccine updates here to its website.
Side effects of the Pfizer vaccine may include swelling, fatigue, irritation, pain, or headache. Some patients who have been vaccinated reported chills and low-grade fever, according to former FDA chief Dr. Margaret Hamburg.
According to the CDC, doses of vaccines purchased in dollars from U.S. taxpayers will be free for Americans. However, vaccination providers could charge an administration fee if they choose.
Both Modern and Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines were developed using mRNA (messenger RNA) technology. Here’s how they work.