Just over a week ago, the Moscone Center in San Francisco opened as a large-volume COVID-19 vaccination site.
But now, where the federal government already has a shortage of vaccines, the center is temporarily closed. The closures, announced by Mayor London Breed on Sunday, were the latest local setbacks in a troubled national vaccination program that has not enabled the cities of California and the Bay Area to meet demand.
Cities in California recently opened mass vaccination sites only to find that they could not get enough vaccines to make it work. Cities and health care providers have also struggled with inconsistent and unpredictable deliveries of vaccines from California, which is outsourcing its delivery network.
Beginning Monday, residents will wait at least a week under the vaccination of residents at the Moscone convention facility, as well as at City College in San Francisco, until the next shipment of supplies arrives again.
“I’m frustrated because we’ve shown that SF can give shots as soon as it comes in,” Breed said in a tweet. ‘CCSF has been going well for weeks. Moscone’s reports are overwhelmingly positive. The only thing holding us back is a lack of supply. ”
Officials say City College is likely to reopen for second doses. A third high-volume site in San Francisco will also open this week as planned, but with fewer available appointments. No existing appointments made on the state’s MyTurn scheduling system have been canceled.
When Moscone Center opened this month as a major vaccination site, officials hopefully talked about getting all city residents vaccinated by the end of June – if there were enough supplies. But despite the ability to administer more than 10,000 vaccines daily, supply remained stable.
Cities across the state have experienced similar problems, as more vaccines are being administered than those arriving. As of Friday, more than 5.5 million vaccines have been administered in California, Gavin Newsom said after touring the Moscone Center.
“What this site proves is that the only limitation in our ability to do more is supply,” Newsom said Friday. Supply is the limit. Supply is the issue here in the state of California and across the country. ”
Last month, Newsom said the state would contract with Blue Shield of California to manage its vaccine delivery network, which was criticized early in the vaccination program as one of the slowest in the country.
In Los Angeles, five vaccination sites – including Dodger Stadium – closed late last week due to a shortage of supplies. Officials said the delivery of vaccines that week dropped from 90,000 to 16,000 doses. In San Jose, the deputy director of health said about 6,000 vaccines are administered daily. The site said the site has up to 15,000 a day.
The Oakland Coliseum would begin on Tuesday as a vaccination center with the ability to administer 6,000 doses per day and be managed by the federal government with involvement from California.
As of Saturday, San Francisco has received 262,000 doses and administered more than 190,000 – the remaining doses are reserved for scheduled first and second appointments.
“There’s no doubt about it; we need more doses,” said San Francisco supervisor Matt Haney. ‘To get it done, we need the doses. But we also need more transparency from the SF Department of Public Health. They still do not release the total number of doses we have received, how much we expect and who have it. This is information that the public should have access to. ”
Last week, San Francisco administered an average of 7,400 doses. About half of residents over 65 have been vaccinated. But that still leaves a big gap – the city has to vaccinate all 760,000 residents over the age of 16, which means more than 1.5 million doses are needed.
At Moscone, frontline health workers and individuals 65 years and older can receive vaccinations. The City College site can deliver up to 3,000 shots per day to individuals 65 years and older, by invitation only.
Lizzie Johnson is a staff writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @LizzieJohnsonnn