San Francisco's top health official says most people will get COVID-19 vaccine through physician

SAN FRANCISCO - City and public health leaders in San Francisco offered new details on how mass vaccinations will unfold.
   
The nation and the Bay Area celebrated the creation of the COVID-19 vaccines, but an overwhelming majority of people still wonder when and how they will get their dose.

San Francisco Public Health Director Dr. Grant Colfax said in most cases, physicians will administer the vaccine doses. 

"Since the majority of people will be receiving vaccine from their provider they will receive notification from that provider, when and how the vaccine is available," Colfax said. "For those who do not have a private provider, we are going to be working within our healthcare system to notify patients within our Department of Public Health community clinics."

San Francisco also plans to set up mass vaccination sites so that those who do not have access to regular medical care will still be able to get the vaccine. Colfax said that way, "we are getting vaccine into the arms as quickly as possible, when we have sufficient supply of vaccine to meet the need for a mass vaccination site we expect to have that site up and running."

As for a timeline, that is hard to pin down, San Francisco said it is depending on the state and federal government to ship vaccine doses to health care providers and the county. 

San Francisco is still suffering from a post-December holiday surge in cases, with an average of 280 new cases diagnosed every day. Those numbers are starting to stabilize, and city leaders hope that with careful behavior modification the case rate will drop.