A shortage of vaccines has closed the Petco Park COVID-19 vaccination super station through Tuesday, and San Diego County public health officials also reported 262 new infections and 19 deaths.
According to UC San Diego Health, which runs the county's largest vaccine site at Petco Park, all appointments for Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday will be rescheduled. The site was also closed Saturday.
People who were scheduled on those days can check their MyUCSDChart account — the health system's electronic notification system — or email for details.
It is the third time in as many weeks that the site has had to close due to vaccine shortages.
The closure comes at an inopportune time, as more than 500,000 emergency services, child care and education and food and agriculture workers were scheduled to be eligible to receive vaccines beginning this week.
RELATED: Emergency, Child Care And Food Workers Become Eligible For COVID-19 Vaccine
On Wednesday, San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher had a positive tone about the direction of the pandemic and vaccine rollout. Cases continue to decrease, as do hospitalizations and positive test results. Yet the demand for vaccines continues to far outpace supply.
The county's existing doses will be largely reserved for second doses. Other vaccination super stations and smaller points of distribution will continue to administer second doses this weekend and into next week, as supplies allow.
On Wednesday, Fletcher did caution that appointments would not be immediately available to everyone who qualifies.
"We need folks to be patient," Fletcher said Wednesday, adding that the county will prioritize K-12 schools in ZIP codes hardest hit by COVID-19.
As part of efforts to spur the reopening of schools, Fletcher said 20% of vaccine doses will be prioritized for teachers and school staff, as opposed to the 10% outlined by state leaders.
The county will set up appointments directly with K-12 school districts, Fletcher said, while all others who fall into phase 1B — including education and child care workers outside of K-12 campuses — can schedule appointments through typical public means such as the county's website.
Of the county's population over the age of 16, 20.5% — or 550,227 people— have received at least one dose and 9.4% — or 251,738 people — have been fully inoculated the county reported on Saturday.
Sunday's data increased the cumulative totals in the county to 260,356 cases and 3,303 deaths.
Of 13,819 tests reported by the county, 2% returned positive. The 14- day rolling average remained at 4.4%.
Hospitalizations decreased from 569 on Thursday with 184 people in intensive care beds to 538 hospitalized and 175 in ICU beds Friday. One month ago, there were 1,408 people hospitalized with COVID-19, 408 of whom were in the ICU. There are 53 available, staffed ICU beds in the county.
There were seven community outbreaks reported Sunday, part of 30 in the past week tied to 122 cases.
