While California waits for its delivery of 380,000 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, supply issues continue to confound health care providers.
Sutter Health earlier this week had to cancel or postpone tens of thousands of second-dose COVID-19 vaccine appointments.
On Friday, officials with the healthcare system said they had begun to reschedule appointments for those who had their second dose canceled, thanks to an increase in vaccine supply.
Sutter Health has been allocated approximately 60,000 doses from the state, which officials expect to arrive in the next two weeks. It has also been given doses from county and local health partners.
The CDC said that people who had their second shots delayed should not panic.
"You can get that second dose four days early, out to six weeks after that first dose without a concern,” explained Dr. Daniel Griffin, an infectious disease clinician at Columbia.
He said some early data suggests that waiting longer than three weeks between doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may actually be beneficial.
"We’re actually seeing better vaccine response,” Griffin told KCBS Radio. “We’re actually seeing more efficacy; so antibody levels are shooting up higher, we’re actually seeing a broader antibody umbrella that we’re producing. So I think people can rest assured if there’s a bit of a delay between the first and second dose. All the science, everything we’re learning says that's okay."
The first dose has also been shown to provide some protection on its own, with the second dose boosting how well it works.
Scheduled first dose appointments remain on standby and Sutter Health is unable to open new appointments, officials said.
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported that Sutter Health representatives were informing patients that they could try to get their second dose at a Walgreens or CVS. A Sutter Health spokesperson told KCBS Radio representatives were only informing patients that they could get their second dose elsewhere.
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