Demand For COVID-19 Vaccine Crashes Riverside County System

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — It was another frustrating day for residents hoping to get an appointment at a Riverside County-operated COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

Residents were allowed to sign up at noon Thursday to receive one of 3,900 COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered at a series of county-run clinics, but all appointments were quickly taken.

During the sign-up process, the county's website crashed multiple times due to the number of people attempting to book appointments. Patch heard from dozens of disappointed community members who tried for hours to log onto the county site, only to learn that all appointments were filled.

"It just gets so frustrating, when there are appointments available. You really have only one chance — if you don't get in on that first try, by the time you get back on and fill in the registration form again, all the other sites have filled up," a Patch reader wrote.

Eager residents who attempted to get appointments last week faced the same setbacks: a crashing website, and ultimately no available slots.

Jose Arballo, spokesperson for Riverside University Health System-Public Health, said there is a "frenzy" to get an appointment.

The public outcry prompted the county to issue a statement Thursday evening announcing a change to its appointment-making website.

“Residents are understandably frustrated that the appointment website did not perform today,” said Juan C. Perez, Interim County Executive Officer. “While we worked with our vendor to ensure it would be operational today, unfortunately, it was not. Frankly, that’s unacceptable. We apologize for this unfortunate situation and will soon direct residents to a new website.”

A new link will be announced soon for residents to sign up for COVID-19 vaccinations. When appointments are open, the new county site will continue to link to the state’s vaccine registration portal. If all appointments are booked, users will not be able to secure a time.

While the appointment process could get smoother, vaccine availability will still be short in the near-term.

Since vaccine distribution began last month, Riverside County has received a total of 157,775 doses, the bulk of which has gone to private providers. According to the California Department of Public Health, 3,989,850 vaccine doses have been shipped to counties and health-system entities across the state since distribution began.

Local providers order the vaccine through the state, which in turn orders doses from the federal government, according to the California Department of Public Health.

"The federal government then authorizes the order and submits the request to the manufacturer. The manufacturer or central distributor ships the vaccine directly to the local California provider. It can take a week or longer between when doses are allocated by the federal government to when they arrive at public health offices or providers and are ready for administration," according to the state agency.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that created a COVID-19 response coordinator, whose job entails managing efforts to produce and distribute vaccines and medical equipment. The president also invoked the Defense Production Act to increase the supply of all the materials needed to get the vaccines into arms.

Arballo estimates it will be several weeks before supplies catch up with need in Riverside County.

"We're happy to see vaccines are in demand," Arballo said, but he empathized with people who can't get an appointment now. "I don't blame them for being frustrated."

Riverside County received a total of 26,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine this week. The bulk of the batch was for private entities across the county. See the full list of entities here. (Scroll down to the dashboard to see the list on the right-hand side.)

"People can also get the vaccine through providers other than the county," Arballo said.

As additional providers come on board, and more vaccines are received in the county, added clinics will open, but the "frenzy" will likely continue in the short-term, Arballo said.

Upcoming clinics will accommodate residents in Phase IA of the state's vaccine distribution plan, including health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. Residents in tier 1 of Phase IB will also be allowed to get vaccinated, which includes people aged 65 and over and select essential workers, such as those in education, child care, emergency services and food and agriculture. See the full list here.

Inoculation is free at the county-operated clinics, but people will be asked to provide medical insurance information, although insurance is not required. People planning to get vaccinated must register in advance and bring the required paperwork to prove their eligibility.

For people who have already received a first dose of the vaccine and are worried about whether they will get the required booster, Arballo said there is currently no priority given to those individuals compared to everyone else who is eligible to receive the vaccine.

"Hopefully by then we will have more appointments available," he said.

For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 21 days between the first and second dose, according to the Food and Drug Administration. For the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the interval is 28 days between the first and second dose, the agency reports.

During the trial period for the vaccines, more than 90 percent of participants received their boosters in the recommended period.

"Those participants who did not receive two vaccine doses at either a three-or four-week interval were generally only followed for a short period of time, such that we cannot conclude anything definitive about the depth or duration of protection after a single dose of vaccine from the single-dose percentages reported by the companies," the FDA reported.

It's not reassuring, but Supervisor Karen Spiegel said Wednesday, "The county is distributing vaccine as quickly as we receive it."

This article originally appeared on the Temecula Patch