At a committee hearing with San Francisco supervisors on the city’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout on Thursday, health officials said the city is on track to reach its goal of vaccinating all residents by June 30 and that the city will expand eligibility to children as early as next month.
So far, 65% of eligible people in San Francisco ages 16 and older have been vaccinated, health officials said. Over 56% of the city's total population has received at least one dose, higher than state and national averages. Vaccine eligibility has been open to anyone 16 and older since last week and the city plans to open up vaccine eligibility to 12- to 15-year-old children by mid-May, and to younger children by early summer. Officials said they are planning to open up vaccine eligibility to the 12- to 15-year-old age group in anticipation of FDA approval in the coming weeks.
But while more people are searching for vaccine appointments, vaccine supply has decreased. Naveena Bobba, the city's deputy health director, said supply has been the biggest barrier to reaching the goal.
“The supply has been very unstable, so these are projections that are coming out of the federal government and that’s what we’ve been relying on,” Bobba said at the hearing.
The city receives its supply from the state, but supply has decreased by 35% in the last month. That's partially due to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration’s joint pause on the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week. The state has also allocated more vaccines for pharmacies to administer, meaning the allocation to the city has gone down.
