San Francisco will run out of COVID-19 vaccine Thursday, officials say

SAN FRANCISCO —  San Francisco’s public health department will run out of COVID-19 vaccine Thursday because the city’s allocation dropped substantially from a week ago and doses that had to be discarded were not replaced, city officials said Tuesday.

Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco’s director of public health, said at a news conference that the city received 12,000 doses a week ago and asked for the same number this week. Instead, the city received only 1,775 doses.

On top of that, the city received 8,000 doses of a Moderna vaccine that had to be scrapped because some people in San Diego had allergic reactions to doses from that same batch, prompting the state to issue a warning. Colfax said those 8,000 doses, ordered withdrawn by the state, have not been replaced.

Throughout the state, local health officials have complained of difficulty scheduling vaccine appointments because they lack confidence in how much vaccine they will receive from week to week. As of Friday, California had administered vaccines to only 2,190 residents per 100,000 people. By contrast, Texas had administered 3,461 per 100,000, according to a Centers for Disease Control tracking website.

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Local officials also have complained they have no idea how many doses in their counties are being distributed by private medical providers.

To remedy that, San Francisco issued a health order Tuesday requiring private providers to report their vaccination progress to the city.

Mayor London Breed said the city remains poised to open large vaccination sites to be ready for when the vaccine supply improves.

Meanwhile, the city’s infection and hospitalization rates have continued to stabilize or fall since the holidays, but Colfax said he did not know when the state might lift the stay-at-home order for San Francisco.

Separately on Tuesday, more than 50 restaurants, wineries and others businesses in Napa and Sonoma counties filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom, challenging the state’s outdoor dining ban for the region, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The lawsuit filed in in Napa County Superior Court calls the outdoor dining ban “arbitrary, irrational and unfair” and disputes there is scientific data supporting the state restrictions. The lawsuit resembles one that the California Restaurant Assn. filed against Los Angeles County in November, which will be the subject of a Feb. 10 hearing.

In San Francisco, officials also told residents to stay home for the inauguration Wednesday and watch it on television instead of gathering and potentially spreading the coronavirus.

There has been no intelligence to suggest there will be protests by Trump supporters, but the San Francisco police department has canceled scheduled days off just in case, San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott said.

More vaccine information:

Those 65 and older in L.A. County can sign up for an appointment at the county public health department’s website, vaccinatelacounty.com. Residents without computer access can call (833) 540-0473 between 8 a.m. and 8:30 p.m. for assistance with reservations.

The City of Los Angeles is also offering the vaccine to anyone in Los Angeles County who is 65 and older, through a different online portal, https://carbonhealth.com/covid-19-vaccines. That website connects patients to sites including Dodger Stadium, San Fernando Recreation Park, Lincoln Park, Hansen Dam and Crenshaw Christian Center.