CA Braces For Vaccine 'Open Season' As Supply Dips Again

CALIFORNIA — Every Californian over the age of 16 will become eligible for a vaccine starting Thursday, a major advancement in the state's long road to vaccinating its residents. But that eligibility expansion hinged on the assumption that the state would see a huge upturn in vaccine supply by April.

Dosage supply will crater by about 15 percent in the Golden State this week following a massive shortfall in the production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Supplies of the single-dose vaccine will be extremely scarce because of a 15 million-dose batch that was ruined amid an ongoing struggle with a contracted manufacturer in Baltimore.

Previously, Johnson & Johnson vowed to deliver some 24 million doses nationwide by the end of April, according to multiple reports.

SEE ALSO: How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California

But the federal government confirmed that there will be 86 percent fewer J&J vaccines allocated nationwide this week after production of the vaccine was stalled over quality concerns.

California only received about 572,700 doses of the single-dose shot last week.

This isn't great news considering that the state is gearing up to offer eligibility to every adult in California. The change in anticipated supply could clog the appointment system, with more Californians scrambling for appointments than there are doses available.

Johnson & Johnson's product was projected to be the catalyst in accelerating California's embattled vaccine rollout since it is just one shot and requires only refrigeration, not freezing.

Vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech were still expected to flow into the state steadily in the coming weeks, but that supply will not be enough to meet the swelling demand. California is expected to receive about 2 million doses next week and just 1.9 million doses the following week, the state said.

The plunge in expected J&J shots could also throw a monkey wrench in Gov. Gavin Newsom's plans to reopen California. Newsom announced last week that the Golden State would reopen its economy by June 15, assuming that a majority of the population is vaccinated by then.

Assuming that California avoids a looming spike in cases — already seen in other states — the state plans to do away with its Blueprint for a Safer Economy, the four-tier, color-coded system that has guided economic reopening through a series of restrictions and capacity limits.

That system has been in place for 31 weeks, Newsom said last week, following the announcement that 16 more counties had moved out of restrictive tiers.

"It is incumbent upon all of us not to announce, 'Mission accomplished,' ... but to continue that vigilance that got us where we are today," Newsom said. "We are seeing bright light at the end of the tunnel."

California continues to face a vaccine supply shortage this week and will race against the potential of another surge as the state reopens more than it has since the beginning of the pandemic.

Evidence of more variant spread and another spike in coronavirus is looming across the United States, and some federal officials have expressed deep concern.

"We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now, I'm scared," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said at a White House press briefing last month.

Even as the country's vaccination rollout picks up speed, the Upper Midwest and the Northeastern reaches of the nation have seen a concerning new wave of cases, The New York Times reported last week.

"We’re concerned that this supply decrease will slow our ability to outrun the new more highly infectious COVID-19 variants," Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia told The Mercury News. He is also on the executive committee for the California State Association of Counties.

Last week, the CDC confirmed that the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, which is highly infectious, has now become the dominant mutation of the coronavirus across the U.S.

Meanwhile, some counties have already lifted vaccine eligibility constraints on those 16 and older. Santa Clara, Fresno, Alameda, San Francisco and Contra Costa counties were among those that began offering vaccines to all adults ahead of the state.

On Tuesday, the city of Los Angeles — once considered the state's coronavirus epicenter — will open its vaccination eligibility to those 16 and older at all city-run sites.

L.A. County is also bracing for a dip in supply this week.

The decline in the county-controlled supply is concerning — and poorly timed — but there are still expected to be about a half million available doses in the county, thanks to other noncounty or city providers who receive direct allocations from the state and federal governments.

The county's allocations of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will both increase, but it won't be enough to make up for the plunge in Johnson & Johnson doses, said Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the county health department.

He said he remains confident that the Johnson & Johnson supply will rebound in the coming weeks and that overall the county is on track to get much of the adult population vaccinated by early summer.

When everyone 16 and up becomes eligible, it creates a further challenge for people who have less access to online appointment sites, as a wider portion of the population with greater computer access crowds them out, he added.

"We are quite concerned with this opening up of eligibility ... that those with less resources, less ability to navigate these online appointment systems or faced with waits on our call line will have more difficulty getting appointments," he said.

SEE ALSO: CA To Fully Reopen June 15; 16 Counties Move Tiers

As of April 6, 32 percent of California's population — 12,625,303 people — had received at least one vaccine dose. Just 16.8 percent of the population — 6,637,438 people — were fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the CDC and the federal government.

To date, more than 22 million shots have been administered to Golden State residents.

California's coronavirus data as of Sunday

• 3,600,178 total confirmed cases have been reported to date, with 4,954 new cases reported Sunday.
• 1.6 percent was the seven-day positivity rate as of Sunday.
• More than 56,363,675 tests have been conducted in California.
• 59,218 COVID-19 deaths have been reported since the start of the pandemic.
• 22,777,893 vaccine doses have been administered statewide.

Information about variants tracked in the Golden State can be found here.

Read more about California's vaccine rollout from Patch:

• CVS Adds 119 More Coronavirus Vaccine Sites In California
• CA Vaccine Rollout: How To Book An Appointment At Rite Aid
• 5 CA Variant, Vaccine Questions: What You Need To Know
• Volunteers At CA Vaccine Clinics Could Get Early Access To Shots
• 1 Year With Coronavirus In CA: 'A Moment In Time' Becomes An Eon
• CA Shifts To 3-Foot Desk Spacing In School Reopening Plan
• CA OKs Drumline, Band Events In New COVID-19 Youth Sports Rules

City News Service contributed to this report.