San Francisco officials announced two of the region’s mass vaccination sites would temporarily shut down amid a severe lack of supply.
Over the last week, the city’s mass vaccination sites at Moscone Center and City College of San Francisco improved the department, healthcare providers, and pharmacies’ vaccine distribution to an average of 7,400 doses.
Halt of Vaccinations
The increase in distribution allowed the city to inoculate more of its eligible residents, those who were aged 65 years or older, from 31% to 47%.
However, decreasing supply is forcing challenging decisions, including the shutdown of the Moscone Center site for one week. Officials are hoping once enough doses arrive, the vaccination would resume, and locations would reopen.
The Moscone Center vaccination site is operating with the help of Kaiser Permanente, Adventist Health, the California Medical Association, Dignity Health, Futuro Health, and the California Primary Care Association.
Before reopening on Friday, the City College site is forced to close its doors to residents for one week. However, once it is operational again, they would only provide second doses to those who have already received their first shots.
Officials expect the opening of a third mass vaccination site located at the San Francisco Market in the Bayview neighborhood this week. The center would provide priority to scheduled appointments by taking from other schedules.
“The vaccine supply coming to San Francisco’s healthcare providers and the Department of Public Health (DPH) is limited, inconsistent, and unpredictable, making vaccine rollout difficult and denying San Franciscans this potentially life-saving intervention,” city officials said on Sunday, Mercury News reported.
The city health department said more than 190,000 out of 262,000 doses had been administered to the residents. The remaining doses are scheduled to be used to vaccinate those who make appointments, and others are to be saved for second doses.
The mass vaccination sites were opened by city officials last month with the aim of inoculating the entire population by June 30. In order to vaccinate more than 760,000 residents over the age of 16, more than 1.5 million doses are required, officials said on Sunday.
