One month ago this week we welcomed the news that the first vaccine shipments had arrived in San Diego County. Since then, more than 92,000 people have received their first – and some even their second – dose of the vaccine. While this may seem like just a drop in an Olympic sized pool, it’s progress and a lifeline for many who have been treading water for almost a year.
Vaccine distribution
Yesterday, more announcements were made about the next phases for vaccinations.
To increase the pace of COVID-19 vaccine distribution to those at greatest risk, the state announced that it will prioritize individuals 65 and older to receive the vaccine once demand subsides among health care workers. Here’s the full announcement.
The County of San Diego held a news conference in the afternoon, where it provided a reality check on the local vaccine situation. This included clarifying that the county will not begin vaccinating the 65+ age group until it has first completed vaccinating the 620,000 health care professionals and other priority groups in Phase 1A. It takes two doses for each person to be fully vaccinated, which means around 1.2 million doses are needed to complete the first phase. To date, about 242,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been shipped to our region.
If you’re a numbers nerd like me, you’ll appreciate the new dashboard below that gives a summary of how many doses of the vaccine have been administered to date. The totals only include vaccine doses that have been recorded in the San Diego Immunization Registry and the county said it’s likely the number is higher since reports typically lag several days between when vaccines occur and when they’re reported.
This dashboard will be updated by the county weekly going forward.
