San Diego City Wire

The County of San Diego is planning to vaccinate its senior residents for COVID-19 -- provided there are enough doses.

According to a Jan. 13 release, the county will be prioritizing residents who are aged 65 years and older for its next COVID-19 vaccination. 

A total of 620,000 health care professionals and other priority groups in Phase 1A are currently being vaccinated in the region. Later this month, 600,000 residents from Phase 1B will be vaccinated provided that there are vaccination doses available.

However, residents from the age group may not be vaccinated if there are doses available from their health care providers. The county is asking local providers to prioritize these residents with underlying medical conditions.

“It would be ideal if we could vaccinate everyone who wants to be immunized at the moment, but unfortunately we don’t have enough COVID-19 vaccine to do so,” Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer, said in the release. “We understand people are anxious to get vaccinated and they will get to do it when more vaccine arrives in the region.”

Around 242,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been shipped to San Diego to date -- excluding doses shipped to long-term care facilities, military and veterans' hospitals and multi-county entities.

According to the release, "through Jan. 12, a total of 92,305 COVID-19 doses have been administered to San Diegans; 79,607 to people who have received their first dose and 12,698 to people who have received both doses of the vaccine."  The data only includes doses that were recorded in the San Diego Immunization Registry.

The California Department of Public Health and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not yet released the figure and arrival date of additional vaccine doses.

In February, three additional vaccination "superstations" will open in other parts of the region.