SD Urges Residents To Get Vaccinated Amid Rise Of Delta Variant

SAN DIEGO, CA — The delta coronavirus variant is on its way to becoming the dominant strain in California and in San Diego, prompting county officials to urge more residents to get inoculated against the virus Friday.

Some 95 percent of positive cases reported since March 1 were detected in those who had not been fully vaccinated, according to county data. What's more, 98 percent of all hospitalizations and 96 percent of recorded deaths were also people who had not been inoculated.

"We have a safe, effective and free way to not spread COVID," San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher said on Friday. "And so we're urging people — we know that this works, we know it's safe."

Fletcher said 49 of the 54 reported Delta cases were in unvaccinated people.

Although the number of known delta variant cases remains relatively small, reported cases have doubled in a week, the San Diego Union Tribune reported.

Delta is a mutation of alpha, another common variant first discovered in the United Kingdom. The delta mutation is much more transmissable, but researchers are still working to determine whether the variant causes more severe disease.

READ MORE: 4 Things To Know About The Rapidly Spreading Delta Variant In CA

"As more and more people are out and about without masks and as the Delta variant moves into San Diego, we’re likely going to see more hospitalizations, especially among the unvaccinated," Dr. Robert Schooley told the San Diego Union Tribune this week. "Those who continue to procrastinate about getting vaccinated do so at their own peril."

At a Friday news briefing, Dr. Hans Crumpler, a physician at Sharp Grossmont Hospital, in La Mesa, urged those skeptical of the shots to get more information from medical experts. Crumpler, who was ill with the virus himself, pleaded with residents to avoid misinformation and rumors that coronavirus is a hoax.

"I had the virus myself and it is not fun to get," he said, adding that vaccines are "much more dealable than fighting body aches that are beyond belief, beyond description...The devastation that this virus causes is preventable, and the fact that we have a vaccine that's so highly effective is unprecedented in our civilization."

Crumpler compared coronavirus pandemic to the destruction that polio once brought to the U.S. and praised the use of vaccines.

"Our President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a victim of polio," he said. "We didn't have the technology that we have available now, so let's use it to our advantage."

He also urged San Diegans not to fret over side effects of the vaccine.

"It is something that's going to give you side effects," he said. "When I had my vaccine, I felt sore in my arm for a couple of days. But in comparison to having COVID, I would much rather have that."

Crumpler added that the worst side effects he's seen come in the form of a rash or gastrointestinal upset.

County officials noted that residents should get vaccinated as quickly as possible as the delta variant was expected to become dominant in the coming weeks.

"A single dose of those vaccines is only 33% effective against the more contagious delta variant of COVID-19, which has become the most prevalent strain of the virus in the United States and is likely to become more prevalent locally," Denise Foster, the county's chief nursing officer and COVID-19 clinical director, said. "San Diegans who are overdue for their second shot should take action as soon as possible to lower their risk of getting or spreading the virus."

Everyone 12 years and older is eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine at no cost.

"The data shows what we've known all along. The COVID-19 vaccines are very effective at preventing serious illness and deaths," said Dr. Seema Shah, medical director of HHSA's epidemiology and immunization services branch.

Since Jan. 1, a total of 1,219 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the region but only three were county residents who had been fully vaccinated.

The county's cumulative cases increased by 200 to 283,576 as of Thursday, while one death was reported, increasing that total to 3,783.

San Diego County's case rate is 2.5 cases per 100,000 residents as of this week's data.

The City News Service contributed to this report.