Last night, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced significant vaccine allocation changes. Unfortunately, the State is receiving a reduced supply of COVID-19 vaccines from the Federal Government for allocation to local health jurisdictions (LHJ) and providers.

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) indicates there are approximately one (1) million first doses available for allocation by the State this week. This is a 33% decrease from last week. Specifically for Janssen, this is close to a 95% reduction from approximately 572,000 doses last week to 67,000 doses this week.

This reduction is caused by near-term supply challenges at the national level, as well as increasing proportions of California’s vaccines being delivered through the federal direct allocation programs.

The State plans to reduce first dose allocations across LHJ geographies proportionately across the board. This means that most LHJ areas and providers will see approximately 65-67% of their last week’s total. This reduction in first doses does not affect second doses. The County of Mendocino will focus on administering second doses, which continue to be timed 3-4 weeks, as applicable, after first dose allocations.

The State plans, starting with next week’s allocation, to begin using both federal direct allocations and available inventory data, to adjust allocations at LHJ and provider levels.

We continue to expect vaccine supply for State allocation to increase by the end of April.