A pharmacist discovered on Tuesday night that a refrigeration unit on the Soka University website that holds bottles of the Pfizer vaccine works easily outside the recommended temperature range.
This triggered precautions as the site set aside the supply of doses for that day. For most of Wednesday, it remained unclear whether part or all of that day’s supply should be discarded.
The Aliso Viejo website normally distributes about 3,000 doses of vaccine a day.
This has been particularly worrying at a time when the supply of vaccines remains limited and in high demand, as coronavirus continues to infect thousands of people every day across California – and as new, more contagious variants become more widespread. in the state.
But until late, news came that made it easier: after consulting with the manufacturer, they determined that the refrigeration problem was not enough to damage the doses and could be distributed.
“After examining the details, the manufacturer informed that the temperature variation does not harm the safety or efficacy of the vaccine and provided confirmation that the vaccine can be safely distributed according to the normal protocol,” county officials said in a written statement.
While the doses in question were set aside, additional doses were brought in and all scheduled appointments were honored, officials said.
The Soka site, which was opened on January 23, is what the county refers to as a super POD or distribution point, capable of thousands of meetings in a single day.
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According to data from last week, the county administered the first doses of vaccine to more than 196,000 people and the second dose to about 46,000.
Vaccination information and scheduling for Orange County is available here at Othena.com.
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