COVID-19 Vaccine Shortage Forces Sutter Health To Reschedule Appointments
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- A shortage of COVID-19 vaccine has forced Sutter Health to temporarily halt administering initial shots and reschedule appointments for thousands of second shots.
Earlier this week, officials said they began canceling appointments -- as many as 90,000 -- because of a shortage of vaccine.
In an email to KPIX 5 Friday night, Sutter officials said they expect to receive enough vaccine shipments over the next two weeks to begin rescheduling the cancelled second shot appointments.
On it's website, Sutter says that "due to extremely limited supply, we're not scheduling first dose appointments."
"In addition to the supply allocated by the state, many county and local health partners have given Sutter vaccine in recent days," Monique Binkley Smith, the system's media relations manager said in the email. "This additional and unexpected supply, along with the state's commitment to provide approximately 60,000 doses over the next two weeks, allows us to reschedule those impacted patients, starting as early as this weekend."
Sutter said was the system's hope to have enough vaccine to complete the CDC required second shots in their require time duration.
"As long as we continue to receive sufficient supply, we anticipate being able to complete all second dose vaccinations well within the CDC's recommended timeframe," Binkley Smith said. "We may still need to reschedule some second-dose patients and will reach out to them in advance. Unfortunately, our scheduled first dose appointments remain on standby, and we are still unable to open new appointments."
Officials said they have been allocated approximately 30,000 COVID-19 additional vaccine doses from the state and Blue Shield and another allocation of approximately 30,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses was expected to arrive next week.
"While these allocations are a step in the right direction, they are only a partial fulfillment of the commitment the state has made to assure second doses," official said. "We are hopeful the state will provide the additional 30,000 so we can bring back all of our patients for their second dose of the vaccine within the CDC's recommended timeframe."
