SF Mayor London Breed Joins Bay Area Plea For More COVID-19 Vaccine; Ready To Ramp Up Distribution
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- The most ambitious vaccine distribution ever in San Francisco's history has begun, but to fully implement it the city's needs more doses of vaccine -- much more.
San Francisco officials unveiled plans for three large vaccination sites -- Moscone Center in SoMa, SF Market in the Bayview and the main campus at City College. They're in neighborhoods that have been hardest hit by the virus.
The City College site, officials said, will be ready to open by the end of next week, depending on supply.
"The vaccine doses we have received remain limited. We're ready for more doses, we need more doses, we're asking for more doses," said Mayor London Breed. "We can ramp up and open these sites, the minute we have these vaccines."
The city said its goal is to administer 10,000 doses per day, pending vaccine supply.
It is also working with One Medical, Safeway, and Walgreens to deliver vaccines when doses become available. It will also set up pop-up sits in high-impacted neighborhoods.
In the meantime, it has set up a website where residents can sign up, starting Tuesday, to get notified of when they are eligible to be vaccinated. People who live and work in San Francisco can sign up for vaccine notification at sf.gov/vaccinenotify.
So far, the city has administered 11,071 vaccines out of 31,365 received, according to the SF Department of Public Health.
The state has also only given a third of its vaccines.
"That number is getting better everyday, but it's still overall a little bit concerning," said UCSF Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Peter Chin-Hong. "But I do know that our political leaders, public health leaders are making great efforts to liberalize the criterion for those who are getting vaccines."
Another reason for the slow rollout is funding, according to Stanford Infectious Disease Expert Dr. Yvonne Maldonado.
"One of the issues as well is that the billions of dollars were spent on developing these vaccines. Billions of dollars were not spent on implementing a vaccine administration rollout. So counties have been doing this. Counties and states have been doing vaccination programs with almost no additional resources," she aid.
On Friday, we learned that the federal government does not have a stockpile of vaccine doses.
"We read as everybody else that they have reneged on that or for whatever reason are unable to deliver," said Governor Gavin Newsom. "We already ,all of us are working closely with the incoming administration hope and expectation we get some clarification."
President-Elect Joe Biden laid out his plans to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office.
''We will immediately work with states to open up access to more priority groups. Implementation has been too rigid and confusing," he said.
Biden says he will invoke the wartime defense production act to boost production of vaccines, syringes and protective equipment.
