California expects about 90% fewer Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses next week, indicating a significant decrease in the total number of doses that will lead to fewer first appointments, even if the state increases the suitability for any resident older than 16 on April 15th. .
Public health officials expect the allocation of all COVID-19 vaccines next week to drop by 367,000 doses to about 2 million, compared to about 2.4 million doses received this week, said Darrel Ng, spokesperson for the Department of Public Health in California, said Wednesday night. The doses are expected to drop to around 1.9 million again next week.
The total decline consists of Johnson & Johnson vaccines, Ng said, which will shrink 88% from 575,000 doses this week to about 68,000 next week. Ng declined to comment on the matter other than to confirm the award numbers.
In Santa Clara province, Blue Shield representatives told health officials late Wednesday that the award would decrease next week, Jeff Smith said, but they did not confirm exactly how many. Although the state expects a small increase in both doses of Pfizer and Moderna next week, provinces must first schedule appointments for second doses, meaning those who need to receive another dose may be unhappy for weeks.
“With the reduced amount of J&J, it will significantly delay new doses,” Smith said.
Officials in Contra Costa County – which opened vaccines to everyone aged 16 and over at the end of March – also expect a significant reduction in vaccine allocation. Supervisor John Gioia, who is also on the executive committee of the California State Association of Counties, said the outage “will disappoint many people who expect to be vaccinated soon.”
“We are concerned that this decline in supply will slow down our ability to outperform the new more contagious COVID-19 variants,” he said.
San Mateo County Health also expects a “significant decrease” in the state’s vaccine doses, said Louise Rogers, head of department, in a statement, although an increase in supply is expected by the end of April. San Mateo County will receive 11,450 doses, up from 17,420 the previous week, although those numbers do not include doses that Blue Shield supplies directly to Stanford Health, Gellert Health and Safeway pharmacies.
“With this award, we are able to run two-dose clinics this week and have scaled back our plans for first-dose clinics,” she said.
Provincial officials said the state did not explain why J & J’s supplies had declined so sharply; Ng addressed all further questions to the federal government. Other states, including Florida and New Jersey, reported similar declines in supply on Wednesday.
In California, however, the sharp decline comes just days before the state plans to be eligible for all over 16s on April 15 – and one day after Gavin Newsom’s government announced a dramatic reopening plan that depends in part on the provision of vaccines. With the plan, the current reopening system for provinces will end on 15 June and virtually all businesses across the country will be able to resume full capacity inside and outside.
With the announcement of the plan on Tuesday, Newsom said he did not expect the state’s allocation of vaccines to rise significantly until May, but that he did not indicate that stocks would fall. He acknowledged that getting vaccinated for all Californians in the broader admission pool takes a while, a number of weeks, maybe more than a month. ‘
Staff Writer Leonardo Castañeda contributed to this report.