North County residents are now able to get COVID-19 vaccines closer to home, as San Diego County opened its third Vaccination Super Station Saturday at Cal State San Marcos Sports Center.
"The vaccine offers our pathway out of this, the road to recovery, to restoring, to renewing," Board of Supervisors Chairman Nathan Fletcher said before the first patients with appointments started getting a dose of the vaccine at 9:30 a.m.
Fletcher said the initial goal set in early January was to give 200,000 vaccinations by the end of the month.
"We're now well over 300,000," he said.
"This is driven by a couple of things," he continued. "Number one, the demand for the vaccine is exceedingly high. We have far greater demand to get the vaccine that we have vaccines. We are grateful to so many San Diegans who are so committed to getting the vaccine because, again, this is our pathway out of what we face.
"Number two, we have incredible county staff and we have tremendous partners in the health system."
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Supervisor Jim Desmond joined Fletcher, calling the San Marcos site "a very positive game-changer for all of us in North County."
"It's truly a remarkable collaborative effort," Desmond said. "I'm glad to be part of it."
The site will be open to the public weekly from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday through Thursday. Initially, the site is expected to vaccinate 250 to 1,000 people per day, depending on the number of vaccines available, eventually building up to 5,000 or more vaccines daily.
The site is being hosted at CSUSM, with partnership from Palomar Health, UC San Diego Health and Tri-City Medical Center.
The county has received more than 485,900 vaccines. Fletcher said there is a normal lag in reporting the numbers, but 1.6% of the county's population over the age of 16 has been fully vaccinated.
Fletcher said an East County Super Station is in the works for this week, but he hasn't named a date or location.
Appointments for this site can be made online at www.VaccinationSuperStationSD.com. Those who arrive for appointments can park at 103 Campus View Drive. There will be free parking on floors two and three of the parking structure.
