San Diego County leaders reported that more than a million San Diegans are now fully vaccinated for COVID-19, as the county Health and Human Services Agency prepares for a shift in how it will go about administering vaccines.
County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher said Wednesday there is now slack in the vaccination system. Not a significant one, he said, but there are more available appointments now than there have been since the rollout began.
Because of this, the county will take actions to make getting a vaccine more convenient, such as extending the hours of several county-run vaccination sites to 8 p.m. and looking at the possibility of making some sites 24 hours.
The HHSA will redo a survey on attitudes toward vaccines and the county will have the results by June 1, Fletcher said. Additionally, a program focusing on getting people aged 16-34 vaccinated is in the works, as are more mobile vaccination sites to get to rural areas or parts of the county without convenient health care.
All 23 county-run vaccine sites are now accepting walk-in visits, but the super stations are still appointment only.
Also on Wednesday, Fletcher announced the Veterans Administration had released its number of vaccinations to the county. More than 69,000 people have been vaccinated by the VA, raising the county's overall rate of inoculation by 2%.
San Diego County has received more than 2.95 million doses of vaccines and 2.68 million of those have been administered. The county received 292,950 vaccines this week, 18,000 fewer than the week prior.
A total of 1,447,272 people have received one dose of Pfizer or Moderna — or 71.8% of county residents eligible to receive a vaccine — and 1,006,392 people, or 49.9% of those eligible, are fully inoculated with either two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The goal is to fully vaccinate 75% of San Diego County residents 16 and older, or 2,017,011 people.
County health officials also reported 136 new COVID-19 infections and six additional deaths Wednesday, increasing the county's cumulative totals to 275,820 cases and 3,698 deaths.
Of 23,051 tests reported Wednesday, 1% returned positive. The 14-day rolling average of positive tests is 1.6%.
San Diego County's state-calculated, adjusted case rate is currently 6.2 cases per 100,000 residents. The county remains in the orange tier of the state's four-tier Blueprint for Recovery plan, the second least-restrictive tier.
