Just as California is getting ready to open COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to anyone 16 and over, a new report on Thursday said shipments are expected to drop over the next few weeks, forcing some counties to cancel coveted appointments.
The state won't say why there will be a nearly 90% drop in shipments of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine in the next two weeks, but the company was the victim of a manufacturing mistake at a Baltimore plant that wiped out a staggering 15 million doses set for release.
Bay Area health officials, who expressed concern over the drastic drop and the impact it will have on vaccinations, said they were told late Wednesday that overall shipments would drop from 2.4 million this week to 1.9 million in late April, as reported by the Mercury News.
Just next week, about 367,000 doses won't be arriving as expected.
This is what Alameda County officials are worried about as the county prepares to take over the big, federally-supported Coliseum mass vaccination site that's been serving 6,000 people per day.
"The site is a great site, great location" County Supervisor Keith Carson told KCBS Radio. "(It's) been attracting a lot of people regionally, meaning a lot of people from outside of Alameda County and that's okay because we want as many people vaccinated as possible. But there are a number of people who are unable to get there that are homebound seniors, people who are physically challenged."
Meanwhile the sister site to the Coliseum, the big mass vaccination site at Cal State Los Angeles, has so many extra appointments that they're letting anyone 18 and over stand in line and get a shot now through Sunday.
In Alameda County, anyone 16 and older can get a shot if they live in 12 hard-hit zip codes across Oakland, Hayward, San Leandro and San Lorenzo. County officials said they quietly started targeting those communities last week.
Statewide eligibility opens to anyone 16 and older one week from Thursday.
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