'Doses delayed': Nearly 900,000 COVID-19 vaccines stuck in transit across California
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Nearly 900,000 COVID vaccines are waiting in warehouses or stuck in transit across the state, according to state data.
The backlog is disrupting the distribution of doses to counties across the Bay Area.
"We got work to do on this," said Gov. Gavin Newsom during a Monday press conference.
RELATED: Gov. Gavin Newsom explains why COVID-19 vaccine rollout is slow going
More than 1.7 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been allocated in California, according to the California Department of Public Health. But the state confirmed on Tuesday that only 1.2 million of those have been shipped. Even worse, only around 35% or 454,306 doses have been used.
"It's not good enough, and we recognize that," Newsom added.
CDPH confirmed to ABC7 611,500 additional doses allocated for California have yet to be shipped. Plus, an additional 300,000 doses that will be allocated for the pharmacy program aimed to distribute to skilled-nursing facilities.
"Our goal is to make sure vaccine is not sitting in the freezer," said Dr. Grant Colfax. "As soon as the feds and state supply vaccine to jurisdictions we will get it into as many arms as possible."
Dr. Colfax confirmed the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health has received roughly 30,000 vaccines. But only around 6,000 have been delivered to frontline healthcare workers. It's unclear how many of those vaccines have been used.
UCSF is one of many multi-county entities stepping up to help the state with distribution.
"We need to increase the rate in which we need to deliver vaccine to people," said UCSF Dr. Joshua Adler. "Deliveries come to UCSF from the vaccine manufacturers directly based on the allocation from the California Department of Public Health."
Dr. Adler pointed out vaccine distribution is a major and complex initiative and the hospital is still learning how to handle the process.
"We are all learning as we go," he said.
UCSF started receiving doses two and a half weeks ago. The hospital is vaccinating 1,100 healthcare workers per day.
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