Beach Cities On Pace To Vaccinate 2,500 South Bay Educators

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — Beach Cities Health District is on pace to vaccinate 2,500 educators in the South Bay, officials say.

"It’s been a big week," Beach Cities Health District CEO Tom Bakaly told Patch.

The group opened up the vaccination clinic for educators at the closed POD location last week to help vaccinate people from 11 South Bay school districts.

The health organization received additional vaccinations for this week and hopes to also help private schools in the area, Bakaly said.

"It’s a big operation," he said. "Depending on what happens in the next week or so, hopefully, we’ll have given first doses to about 2,500 educators in their first doses."

Coronavirus testing is still available at the BCHD campus at 514 N Prospect Ave., Redondo Beach, he said.

The demand for testing has dropped but there is still a need to keep testing students who play sports. About 350 people are tested with BCHD per day, Bakaly said.

The next push is to help continue vaccinating older adults who might not have had their dose yet.

"There's a group of older adults that we need to continue to work with because they’re not able to either have transportation either to a vaccination site or the registration or technology have been difficult for them," Bakaly said.

The group has gone to senior facilities to help make appointments for people.

"We’d love to be getting them vaccinated," Bakaly said."We’re going to continue with the educators and see what we can continue with older adults."

It's a process, he added. But it's getting done.

"We’re really pleased and really seeing the whole South Bay come together," Bakaly said. "We’re pleased to help. It is an emergency."

About 200 volunteers have joined the efforts to help vaccinate educators.

"It’s been awesome," said Bakaly, who has lived in the South Bay for about eight years. "Not only retired and nurses and doctors, but actually active doctors are volunteering for the day to help. You really have people step up and volunteer and we’re seeing that."

Board members are also stepping in and helping out.

Bakaly urges people in the South Bay to keep wearing a mask and physically distancing.

People can also volunteer to help out with the vaccination process, which includes an orientation and training.

"It may take a while depending on the demand that we have," he said. "We have a lot of volunteers but we’re always open for more."

"We may have a need for folks, we urge people to sign up," Bakaly said.

Learn more about Beach Cities Health District on the website: https://www.bchd.org/

Don't miss local and statewide news about coronavirus developments and precautions. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.