Much like other counties in California over the past two weeks, San Francisco has had to pause its mass-vaccination effort due to supply issues.
The City College site, which opened on January 22 and still has not reached its full capacity, will be closed until Friday, February 19, at which point it will reopen to administer second doses only. The Moscone Center site will be closed all this week, and it will only resume taking new appointments once supplies increase, but Mayor London Breed says that no existing appointments are being canceled and the city is maintaining enough vaccine to provide second doses on schedule.
"I'm frustrated because we've shown that SF can administer shots as soon as they come in," Breed tweeted on Sunday. "CCSF has been running well for weeks. The reports from Moscone are overwhelmingly positive. The only thing holding us back is a lack of supply, and I'm hoping that will change soon."
As of last week, according to Breed, San Francisco was averaging 7,000 vaccine shots per day with these large sites both open along with multiple other community-based sites and healthcare-network-run sites.
Also, as of Friday, CVS stores around the state began taking vaccine appointments for healthcare workers and people over 65, and at least one CVS store San Francisco — at 1900 19th Avenue — had available appointments as of Thursday.
Supply chain issues caused vaccine appointments to have to be canceled in Santa Clara County and in Los Angeles County last week, and the problem was likely to arise in San Francisco as well.
Breed says that the city should know more about supplies on the way in the next few days, and will then be able to announce when the Moscone Center site can resume giving vaccinations.
Supply issues will become especially acute when millions more Californians become eligible to be vaccinated in the coming weeks. Next week, San Francisco was scheduled to begin vaccinating teachers, grocery and restaurant workers, and emergency services workers as of February 24. And on March 15, the state will be permitting everyone over 16 with a serious underlying health condition to receive vaccines.
As of late last week, 15% of San Francisco's population over the age of 16 had gotten their first vaccine shots, or around 112,000 people.
Photo: SFDPH/Twitter