Petco Park Vaccine Site Reopens, New Site Opens In Otay Mesa

SAN DIEGO, CA — A COVID-19 vaccination site opened in Otay Mesa Tuesday, while the Petco Park vaccine super station reopened following a five-day closure caused by weather-related delays in shipments of doses.

The Petco Park site -- San Diego County's largest COVID-19 vaccination location -- had been closed since Thursday, with winter weather that affected much of the country delayed shipments of vaccine from the Midwest and East Coast. Petco Park uses only the Moderna vaccine, while other sites use Pfizer or both.

Appointments for second doses of the vaccine Friday through Monday were canceled and will be automatically rescheduled, UC San Diego Health officials said. People who had appointments should check the MyUCSDChart website for updates.

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 new Otay Mesa site will administer doses from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. and will be open Sunday through Thursday at the Border View Family YMCA, 3601 Arey Drive. The clinic will start with a capacity to administer up to 500 doses daily, but can expand to give 1,000 shots each day.

On Sunday, a site will open in Lemon Grove, operating from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sundays and Mondays. The site will be at the Lemon Grove Community Center, 3146 School Lane. When fully operational, the Lemon Grove clinic will be able to administer 500 doses daily.

The county's adjusted rate of daily new COVID cases dropped to 15 per 100,000 residents, according to state data released Tuesday. The county is still in the most restrictive "purple" tier of the state's four-tier economic reopening system. To move out of "purple" and into the less restrict "red" tier, the county's new case rate must drop to seven per 100,000 residents. The county's seven-day average positivity rate already qualifies for the "red" tier, at a state-adjusted 5%, but the county must meet all required metrics before advancing out of the "purple" tier.

San Diego County public health officials Monday reported 321 new infections, increasing the county's total to 257,351 since the pandemic began. The death toll decreased by one to 3,189 due to a reporting error.

It was the 11th consecutive day with fewer than 1,000 new cases. The 321 infections are the fewest reported since early November.

Of 9,806 tests reported Monday, 3% returned positive, decreasing the 14-day average positive percentage to 4.7% from Sunday's 4.9%.

Virus-related hospitalizations continue to decline, dropping to 639 patients -- 205 of whom are in intensive care units. COVID hospitalizations have decreased by 59% in the past 30 days while ICU patients with COVID-19 have decreased by 53% in the same time period.

There are 55 staffed, available ICU beds in San Diego County.

One community outbreak was reported Monday, with 22 reported in the past week and 88 cases associated with those outbreaks.

As of Monday, of the 822,150 vaccine doses the county has received, 742,169 have been administered, more than 2,000 are awaiting processing and 77,500 have not been administered. A total of 18.9% of San Diego County's population over the age of 16 have received at least one dose and 6.7% are fully inoculated.

Appointments become available on Sunday for the county's sixth mega vaccination site, the North Central Vaccination Super Station at UC San Diego's RIMAC.

The no-cost walk-in clinic is located in the nearly 200,000-square- foot Recreation, IntraMural and Athletic Complex at the university. The appointment-only site has the capacity to expand to up to 5,000 vaccinations a day.

The super station is open seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Parking is free.

— City News Service