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The Riverside Convention Center will become Riverside’s first mass coronavirus vaccination site, city officials said on Thursday (January 28).
No less than 500 vaccines will be available at the clinic, which will run from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, January 30, before continuing on weekdays from the following week “provided the city can continue to receive shipments. regular vaccine in the state, ”says a press release from the city.
“The number of daily vaccinations will increase if more vaccines become available,” the announcement said.
Registration for the appointments will be available on vaccine.riversideca.gov by the end of Thursday, the statement said. Vaccines will only be offered to people with an appointment at all levels in Phase 1A and those in Phase 1B, including people 65 years of age and older. Photo ID and working papers proving a person’s eligibility will be required.
“(People) who are receiving appointments should arrive at the vaccination site around the time of their appointment, not earlier and certainly not later,” the city press release said. “Each person will be recorded by computer, then moved to a large tent, where they will receive the vaccine, and then be observed for 15 minutes to check for possible adverse reactions.”
The clinic will offer the Moderna vaccine, which should be taken in two doses at least 28 days apart.
“Vaccinations, combined with continued mask wear and physical distancing – these are the steps we need to take together as a community to reduce the impact of COVID-19,” said the Mayor of Riverside Patricia Lock Dawson in the press release.
On Wednesday January 27, Riverside City Council member Erin Edwards tweeted a photo of orange cones set up in the downtown parking lot.
Sunrise over the brand new @Curative vaccination site in the parking lot of the Riverside Convention Center! This Riverside site will be open to the public very soon. Stay tuned for more information on how to book appointments. pic.twitter.com/1Zry4qK3wS
– Erin Edwards (@ ee_edwards12) January 27, 2021
In a phone interview Thursday, Edwards said the city will manage the vaccination site with Curative, a private company offering COVID-19 testing in the city and County of Riverside.
“The city and county have worked together since before vaccines became available to develop a plan and ensure that vaccine rollout goes as smoothly as possible,” she said. “I am proud of how the city has been a leader in COVID testing and we are happy to do the same with vaccines as new vaccines become available.
While Riverside County oversees vaccine distribution, the city “sped up the process to make sure we had a vaccination site in the city” and worked with Curative to establish the convention center site, said Captain Brian Guzzetta, a spokesperson for the Riverside Fire Department.
Curative’s COVID-19 tests were reviewed earlier this month, when the Food and Drug Administration warned of the risk that the tests could give false negative results if not done correctly.
Despite the advice, the city and county are still using Curative’s self-administered oral swab tests, saying they are confident the tests are being done in the right way.
Riverside County has set up vaccination clinics in Lake Elsinore, Perris, Menifee and Indio, among others. But until now, a similar site had not been established in the county’s largest city.
Getting vaccinated in the county has been a frustrating exercise in the law of supply and demand – there are many more people eligible for the vaccine than vaccines available – and the limits of the technology.
At the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 26, the county’s public health director, Kim Saruwatari, said about 800,000 residents of the county were eligible for vaccination. But as of Wednesday, Jan. 27, the county had only received 191,575 doses, according to its online vaccine dashboard.
Since the county began advertising immunization clinics this month, many residents have said they cannot access the registration website. The county told the elderly and those without internet access to call 211 for help securing an appointment, but this led to a flood of calls that overwhelmed operators and left them. unlucky callers unable to pass.
On January 21, county officials announced a revamped website to better handle demand. But they warned that the county’s website still relied on the state’s vaccine registration portal, which took users down a mind-blowing path of filling out forms for unavailable appointments.
On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom abruptly announced changes in the way the state administers rare vaccines, saying he would play a more centralized role in notifying residents, scheduling appointments and determining eligibility. While there is a nationwide shortage of vaccines, California must also administer more doses than it has, state officials said.
On Wednesday, the public health agency announced that health insurance giant Blue Shield of California would be the outside administrator tasked with stepping up coronavirus vaccinations. Another major health care provider, Kaiser Permanente, will also help with statewide efforts to get vaccines quickly and fairly, the agency said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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