COVID-19: Solano County Suffering From Steep Decline In Vaccine Supply

FAIRFIELD (CBS SF) -- Solano health officials issued an urgent plea to the state Monday after a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine has drastically slow down efforts to deliver first doses to the county's most vulnerable residents.

Solano County Health Officer Dr. Beta T. Matyas said the problem lies within the vaccine pipeline from the California Department of Public Health.

"We've seen a significant decline in the allocation of vaccine to the county," Matyas said. "The lack of adequate supply has caused us to pause scheduling many first-dose mass-vaccination clinics, drastically slowing our effort to target and vaccinate our most vulnerable populations."

Over the past two weeks, Solano County's vaccine allocation from the state has been the third lowest per 1,000 residents of all 58 California counties. While Solano County has already administered 134,000 vaccines, the new allocations of available doses have dropped by 60 percent.

Officials said the county was receiving substantially less vaccine than all other similar sized counties, many of which have higher median household incomes. In comparison, Monterey County has received 17,100 more allocated vaccine doses of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines than Solano County in the past five weeks.

"We want to continue getting these critically needed vaccines in people's arms," said John M. Vasquez, District 4 Supervisor and Chair of the Board of Supervisors. "We have the partnerships, infrastructure and demand, we just don't have the vaccine that we need."