FRHD vaccination event postponed due to county-level vaccine shortage

A shortage of vaccines countywide led to the cancellation of a vaccination event to be hosted by the Fallbrook Regional Health District this week and created issues for other vaccination sites around the San Diego region.

“Due to a lack of vaccines at the county level, our Feb. 19 vaccination event in Fallbrook has been postponed,” the Fallbrook Regional Health District said in an email announcement Friday, Feb. 12.

The health district said it is “reaching out to other partners and providers to see if an alternate option can be found, so please don’t despair.”

FRHD directed local residents seeking vaccines to Tri-City Medical Center’s recently begun twice-weekly vaccination clinics, which release appointments at 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesday, Saturdays and Sundays. Appointments can be made through Tri-City’s appointment scheduling portal at https://book.appointment-plus.com/ctbdj1vx/#/. Palomar Health also opened up a vaccination clinic in downtown Escondido, which will be open between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; all appointments there were filled as of Feb. 14, but Palomar Health’s vaccination webpage, which can be accessed at https://www.palomarhealth.org/about-us/covid-vaccine, indicated that more appointments will open soon.

San Diego County’s vaccination webpage can be found at Vaccinationsuperstationsd.com, though some vaccination events were postponed and cancelled as of Feb. 14, a situation attributed to the delayed arrival of an expected shipment of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, which as of Feb. 14, were expected to arrive by Tuesday, Feb. 16.

The delayed shipment affected the region’s largest vaccination site, the county Vaccination SuperStation at Petco Park in downtown San Diego, where no vaccinations were planned to take place Feb. 14-16.

The Chula Vista and La Mesa super stations were said to have supplies sufficient to get through Feb. 15. The county's distribution sites and superstation in San Marcos have sufficient supplies to meet second-dose appointments, along with a limited supply of first doses, county officials said.

It was unclear how long the superstation opened Friday morning at the Del Mar Fairgrounds will be able to maintain its appointments, according to health officials. The Scripps Del Mar Fairgrounds Vaccination Super Station, located at 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., will provide drive-through and walk-through services on an appointment-only basis to anyone eligible to receive a shot under county guidelines.

For those who may experience a delay in second doses, the U.S. Centers For Disease Control and Prevention has advised that people can wait up to 42 days between doses and still achieve maximum immunity.

The shortage of vaccines is San Diego mirrors an issue seen this week in Los Angeles County, where large-scale vaccine sites were limited to second-dose appointments only, and in the city of Los Angeles, which was forced to close its five vaccinations sites due to lack of supply, including the site at Dodger Stadium, considered one of the largest in the country.

San Diego County coronavirus inoculation sites have received 703,200 doses of vaccine and administered 550,707 doses as of Thursday evening, according to the county's Health and Human Services Agency.

A total of 15.5% of San Diegans aged 16 and over have received at least one of the two shots required to develop antibody protection against the virus. Around 3.3% of the population over the age of 16 is fully vaccinated.

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].