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San Francisco opened the first of several neighborhood coronavirus vaccination sites in the Mission District on Monday, moving forward with plans to reach communities hardest hit by the pandemic even as the vaccine supplies remained extremely limited.
The new clinic has been hailed as another encouraging sign that the pandemic is over, especially welcome after the state and the Bay Area emerged from the deadliest month yet. More than a third of deaths from COVID-19 in the Bay Area occurred in January, and 1,677 people lost their lives last month.
The staggering toll mirrors state and country figures: Nearly 15,000 Californians and more than 95,000 people in the United States died from the virus in January. In total, more than 441,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19.
The worst outbreak of the pandemic, however, appears to be abating. Cases and hospitalizations for COVID-19 peaked in late December and early January. But public health experts say the need to quickly vaccinate people and dramatically slow the spread of the disease has never been more urgent. Several new variants that might be able to partially escape vaccines are already spreading in some parts of the world and have arrived in the United States.
“We just need more vaccines to get out and take up arms as quickly as possible,” San Francisco health director Dr. Grant Colfax said Monday at the Mission District immunization clinic.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Monday that 471 cases of three different variants have been identified in at least 32 states. Scientists at Stanford University’s Clinical Virology Lab have discovered variants first identified in the UK and Brazil in the Bay Area, and the UK variant in particular appears to be spreading to parts of the south from California.
Colfax said the variants found in California appear to be largely covered by already approved vaccines.
At the Mission District vaccination site, located in a parking lot on 24th and Capp Streets, city and state officials cheered Monday morning as leaders of two Latin American nonprofits that have served the community throughout the pandemic received their first vaccines.
The mission site is the first of what municipal authorities plan to create a network of neighborhood vaccination clinics. The Department of Public Health plans to open similar sites in Bayview, Excelsior, Visitacion Valley and other neighborhoods with the highest infection rates for the coronavirus. The city is also partnering with Safeway pharmacies to bring vaccines to various neighborhoods.
“I’m really excited today,” the mayor of London Breed said on the Mission vaccination site on Monday. “We know this is the best chance we have to come back to the life we all know and miss.”
To date, California has administered more than 3.5 million doses of the vaccine, or about 60% of its total supply.
The state on Monday released letters of intent signed late last week with Blue Shield of California and Kaiser Permanente to transfer management of its vaccine distribution network in a bid to expedite dose delivery. While the contracts have not been finalized, the letters confirmed that the two Oakland-based care providers will work at or near cost and “will not take advantage of this deal.”
Among other responsibilities, Blue Shield will help design an incentive payment system to encourage vaccine suppliers to use their doses faster, at a higher volume, and with a focus on communities that have been disproportionately hit by the coronavirus, according to the letters. Kaiser will oversee at least two mass vaccination sites and other efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations.
San Francisco has the infrastructure in place to deliver 10,000 vaccine injections per day, but only receives about 11,000 per week, Colfax said. Breed said San Francisco has so far received 150,000 doses and delivered more than 90,000. The rest are scheduled for second doses.
Although counties are allowed to offer vaccines to all residents aged 65 and over, San Francisco still prioritizes healthcare workers, home support staff, and long-term care residents. So far 104,000 out of 210,000 people in this first phase have received a dose, Colfax said.
“We have seen what I call a relatively stable condition compared to what it was a few weeks ago, but we are still at a very low vaccine count,” Colfax said.
The ramp-up of the new site in the mission district depends on supply. During a phased launch period, the health department said, the site will administer around 120 vaccines per day. The site can increase up to 400 vaccinations per day as the supply increases.
The Mission site currently operates by invitation, appointment only, serving community health workers and local residents over 65 within the Unidos en Salud / United in Health network.
The new location targets a community that has been disproportionately affected by the virus. Latinos in San Francisco account for more than 42% of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the city, although they make up only 15% of the population, according to the most recent public health data. They also account for over 20% of deaths from the disease.
“It took the whole barrio to deal with this pandemic,” said Roberto Hernandez, co-founder of the Latino Task Force. “A lot of the people we work with are the most vulnerable, the hardest working, minimum wage workers who don’t have health insurance, they don’t have 401K. They have no retirement plan. This pandemic has hurt them more than you can imagine. “
The site opened at 9 a.m. for the first date Monday. At 10 a.m., Jose Ortiz, a family support specialist at the non-profit Casa Corazon, had received his first dose. The 43-year-old was eligible as a community health worker as he works closely with affected families. Ortiz said everyone in his community knows at least one person who has fallen ill or has died from the virus.
“When you work with people all the time, you have to protect yourself and your family, as well as their families,” he said. Placing a clinic at the heart of the mission is very important, so that everyone can see and go.
The new clinic will operate in conjunction with a coronavirus testing site at BART plaza on 24th and Mission streets, which operates four days a week. The privately funded immunization clinic grew out of Unidos en Salud, a collaboration between UCSF and the Latino task force that managed testing sites in the mission.
San Francisco opened its first mass vaccination site, operated by UCSF Health in partnership with the city’s public health department and private health care providers, on January 22 at the main campus of City College in San Francisco. The city is working on creating a centralized appointment booking system, Colfax said on Monday.
“It’s a community that never stands aside and lets anyone down the road,” Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the mission, said as the vaccination site opened on Monday. “Hang on, San Franciscans. We’re almost out of it and we can make it to the end together.
Mallory Moench and Aidin Vaziri are editors of the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], [email protected] Twitter: @mallorymoench, @MusicSF
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