COVID-19 vaccine: Riverside County officials fix scheduling errors, but supply remains an issue

RIVERSIDE, California (KABC) – A new report suggests that California ranks last compared to other states in the percentage of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered.

According to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracking Tool, California has administered only 37.3% of its vaccine supply.

Locally, residents of Riverside County are among those who express frustration with not being able to register for vaccination appointments on the county’s website.

“I’m not losing sleep, but let’s face it, I’m tired of being co-opted,” said Cynthia Edwards of Menifee, who says she’s not only in the 65+ category, but a substitute teacher.

She said that every time she tried to sign up for vaccination appointments on the Riverside County website, they were not available.

“I know people who are 20 years younger than us and who seem to receive it,” Edwards said. “I don’t know what’s going on here.”

“I called my own healthcare provider and they told me they had received 2,000 vaccines. They are running an algorithmic lottery so they can determine which of their 10,000 patients is most at risk of receiving it.” .

Riverside County officials acknowledged a problem on their website that caused it to collapse shortly after the meetings were made available Thursday at noon. They say that although the error has been fixed, it is not entirely under their control.

The website is a partnership in that part of it is through the county, and part of it is through a state platform, said Dr. Geoffrey Leung with Riverside University Health System. “The state platform is being updated.”

Leung said a pilot program is being tested by two other counties to see if improvements to the platform will be beneficial and increase the stability of COVID-19 vaccine websites. But the biggest problem is not the site itself, but rather the limited supply of the vaccine.

The main challenge we now have with the vaccine is supply, Leung said. “If you look at the state of California, the total allocation so far is only enough to administer the vaccine to 5% of the population.”

Riverside County has announced another 10,000 vaccine appointments that will be available online Saturday at noon. These appointments can be made on the county website here.

Residents of San Bernardino County can request vaccine meetings on the county website here.