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San Francisco, its Department of Public Health, and several private healthcare providers launched the city’s first mass Covid-19 vaccination site at City College on Friday at 8 a.m. in a bid to ramp up vaccinations among residents, regardless of health coverage.
Currently, the drive-thru site was only open to those who had been contacted by their health care provider. Today’s run of perhaps several hundred people served as a sort of dry run for the thousands a day that will need to be inoculated to meet the city’s goal of vaccinating all of its residents by the June 30th. Among those interviewed today, all had been invited by UCSF.
Those who arrived entered through a side street and ended up in a large open parking lot along Friday Kahlo Way. They were then greeted by workers who approached them for admission and with a questionnaire, before being directed to one of the many vaccination routes. There are 23 lanes in total, but at most, Mission Local saw seven lanes in service on Friday.
At 11:30 am, approximately four lanes were open and operations appeared to be slow. At 1:30 p.m., seven lanes were open and more than a dozen cars were in line. Since the vaccine can cause side effects, recipients should be watched for 15 minutes and linger for a bit.
Elizabeth Bartels and her husband arrived with their Norfolk Terrier, Mac. Bartels is over 75 with underlying conditions and exhibited Covid-like symptoms in March, she said.
She received an email about the vaccine from her UCSF MyChart system Thursday night at 7 pm and “easily” made an appointment for Friday.
Once Bartels is safely vaccinated, she said, “I would go out and do my own shopping instead of ordering it online, just to go out. Maybe I could consider traveling a bit. The couple plan to hire a van for a four-day camping trip.
Another woman, Amy, also found out that she qualified on Thursday and landed a spot on Friday. After the two doses, she says, she will continue to mask herself and attempt to get to Santa Fe. She is very excited to see her three children and eight grandchildren.
“I feel very privileged and grateful that these scientists received the vaccine for us and that I was able to get it,” she said.
Most people vaccinated on the site will receive notification from their health care providers such as Dignity Health and Kaiser Permanente. Private providers get the majority of vaccines from the state, according to the Department of Public Health.
The City College site opened amid growing frustrations at the local and national levels over the vaccine rollout. Particularly for San Francisco, the Mayor of London Breed and Director of Public Health Dr Grant Colfax said irregular vaccine shipments made it difficult to navigate vaccination plans at the local level.
“Large vaccination sites like this will be essential for getting people vaccinated quickly and safely,” Breed said in a statement.
The mass site will remain open until 4 p.m. today, then resume immunizations at 8 a.m. for Saturday and Sunday, January 24, but it’s unclear whether the 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. program will resume on Monday. It all depends on how much stock the city receives, according to the Department of Public Health.
Just Thursday, the Ministry of Public Health narrowly avoided canceling scheduled vaccination appointments when an order to stop the use of around 8,400 Moderna vaccines was canceled the day before.
Currently, only healthcare workers or residents 65 years of age or older can be vaccinated; in San Francisco, approximately 210,000 residents are eligible in these two categories. Since two injections are needed, this would require 420,000 doses just to inoculate the city’s first-rate residents.
As of January 20, however, the Ministry of Public Health and private providers “had only received a quarter of these [420,000] doses, ”according to a statement from the mayor’s office.
The City College site is the first of three sites planned by city health officials, who hope to immunize up to 10,000 San Franciscans per day. The other two are planned for the Moscone Center and the San Francisco market in the Bayview if supply permits.
Stephen Clark, 76, said he was a member of UCSF and enrolled through the Contra Costa County Health Department, but received an appointment link for the City College site. Despite his good luck, he said others were involved in a delicate process.
“I searched forever to find the right number to call, it just wasn’t clear,” Clark said. “I’m sure there are a lot of people my age who are a little confused and don’t know what to do.”
Residents who want to know when it’s their turn to get vaccinated can sign up for a vaccine notification system launched on Tuesday. The other two sites are expected to open in a few weeks, Breed and Colfax said earlier this week.
But “to carry out this plan,” Breed said, “we need more vaccines.”
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