The state is allowing dentists to administer COVID-19 vaccines after only about a third of received doses have been administered in California. But a San Diego physician that sits on state and county vaccine advisory groups said local public health officials will be opening regional vaccinate sites to quicken the pace.
Nearly 200,000 vaccine doses made their way to San Diego County facilities, yet vaccinators have administered about 47,000, a county Health and Human Services Agency spokeswoman said on Monday.
Dr. Rodney Hood, a member of the governor’s vaccine safety working group and the county’s local vaccine advisory committee, said the county is hoping to shrink that gap with regional vaccination pods.
“It's easier to have a strategic pod rather than trying to get it to the small practices because of the storage issues,” Hood told KPBS Midday Edition on Tuesday.
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Hood said the freezing or chilling temperatures required to store the two emergency-authorized COVID-19 vaccines makes it difficult for every facility to keep vaccines on site, and the process requires a lot of people power, which can slow things down.
“Even if you're able to store it, you need to be able to deliver it with the PPE and expertise staff to be able to vaccinate,” he said.
He said the county is also partnering with fire departments and large hospital systems to provide more access, including for smaller medical clinics.
San Diego County did not immediately respond to a Tuesday afternoon request for comment regarding vaccination pods.
County spokeswoman Sarah Sweeney previously told KPBS it's hard to even get a firm tally on what’s been received and administered in the region because vaccinators are receiving shipments directly and not through the county, and they must input their own figures into an immunization database.
"That appears to be a slow process," Sweeney said Monday.
The tallies provided by the county also exclude those administered at most long-term care facilities, which are primarily working with retail pharmacies that contracted with the federal government.
The county’s COVID-19 Vaccine Clinical Advisory Group, which is chaired by Hood and two others, is meeting Tuesday afternoon to discuss later phases of the vaccination program.
