A pharmacist discovered Tuesday night that a refrigeration unit on Soka University’s bottles with the Pfizer vaccine was working slightly outside the recommended temperature range.
This caused precautions as the day set the stock doses aside. For most of the day on Wednesday, it was unclear whether the stock of the day or the entire product would have to be discarded.
The Aliso Viejo website normally releases about 3,000 doses of vaccine per day.
This was particularly worrying at a time when vaccine stocks are limited and in high demand, as the coronavirus continues to infect thousands of people daily in California – and as new, more contagious variants become more prevalent in the state.
But late in the day, news came that sighed with relief: after consulting with the manufacturer, they determined that the refrigeration issue was not enough to harm the doses and that it could still be distributed.
“After reviewing the details, the manufacturer advised that the temperature deviation did not compromise the safety or efficacy of the vaccine, and confirmed that the vaccine could be safely dispensed according to the normal protocol,” provincial officials said in a written statement.
While the relevant doses were set aside, additional doses were introduced and all the scheduled appointments were adhered to, officials said.
On the Soka website, which opened on January 23, the province is called a super POD or delivery point, capable of thousands of appointments in one day.
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From last week’s data, the country administered the first doses of vaccine to more than 196,000 people and the second doses to about 46,000.
Information on vaccination and appointment planning for Orange County is available at Othena.com.
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