No plan to close mass vaccination sites in Riverside, San Bernardino counties - San Bernardino County Sun

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While reduced demand for coronavirus vaccines has led Orange County to announce the closure of three mass vaccination sites and Los Angeles County to downsize those giant locations, Inland counties already had a strategy more like what their neighbors are now adopting.

Since the beginning, Inland counties have focused on smaller vaccination sites that were easier for people in the sprawling region to access.

“The county never really saw one huge center as the right fit for our geography and our demographics,” said David Wert, spokesperson for San Bernardino County.

Vaccine vans take doses directly to people in more remote areas of the largest geographic county in the contiguous United States, and the county adds new sites — such as Grace Vargas Community Center in Rialto, which recently opened — when it sees need in a particular area. And as the demand for testing declines, the county is offering vaccines at some former testing sites (with testing still available, too).

“We’re constantly evaluating the demand and traffic at each site and always looking to open new sites based on the healthy places index and communities that are underserved and where the need exists,” Wert said.

Similarly, Riverside County has focused on having more sites, rather than larger sites, said spokesperson Brooke Federico.

The county is transferring some of its sites to operation by companies such as Curative, and regularly reviews county-operated sites to see if different locations would be better, but no closures are planned, she said.

Places even closer to home — pharmacies and doctor’s offices, for instance — now have more supply, making it easy for people to get the jab without a journey, she said.

Riverside County’s largest sites were Diamond Stadium — which moved April 29 to an outlet mall in Lake Elsinore because the stadium was again hosting baseball games — and the Moreno Valley Mall, which both could serve up to 3,500 people per day. The Moreno Valley Mall now vaccinates about 2,000 people per day, Federico said.

That’s still larger than anything in San Bernardino County.

The sites with the most doses allocated to them are the Ontario Convention Center, with 1,620 doses available per day; Inland Empire Health Plan headquarters in Rancho Cucamonga with 900; Arroyo Valley High School in San Bernardino with 883; and Hook Community Center in Victorville with 804, county spokesperson David Wert said. No others have more than 500 doses.

By contrast, Orange County had super sites at Disneyland, the Anaheim Convention Center, Soka University in Aliso Viejo and the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, as well as a medium-sized operation at Santa Ana College. All have already closed or are now closing.

When demand was higher, a single large site sometimes gave up to 7,000 shots a day, county CEO Frank Kim said on a media call Thursday afternoon, but in recent days some sites were seeing fewer than 1,000 people.

Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said large-scale sites will “occupy a smaller footprint,” as they’re still giving about 1,000 shots per day each and the county wants to ensure that the communities in which they’re located will still have easy access to vaccinations. She also noted that the federal government could open vaccinations to youth aged 12-15 as early as next week, potentially increasing demand for the Pfizer vaccine, which has cold-storage requirements the county is equipped to meet.

Staff Writer Alicia Robinson contributed to this report.

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No plan to close mass vaccination sites in Riverside, San Bernardino counties - San Bernardino County Sun
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