SLO County temporarily closing local vaccination site due to limited supply 

Moderna vaccines sit in a refrigerator at the Mid-State Fairgrounds.

SLO County to vaccinate more than 7,300 people this week

–County of San Luis Obispo Public Health officials say more than 7,300 people in San Luis Obispo County will get a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at one of the county’s three public vaccine clinics by the end of this week.

Due to limited vaccine supply, the county will not open any new first-dose appointments at its clinics for the rest of the week. Second-dose appointments will be available throughout the week and next week, but the County Public Health Department will contact people directly to get their second dose.

First-dose appointments are being offered at French Hospital Medical Center and other local providers, but appointments are based on vaccine availability.

“We were able to schedule more COVID-19 vaccine appointments in this one week than any other week of the pandemic, and while we had hoped to book even more appointments, our vaccine allocation from the State this week is not as large as we expected,” said Dr. Penny Borenstein, County Public Health Officer. “We do not want to be forced to shut down our vaccine clinics altogether, which has been done in other communities like Merced County, but will if we don’t have vaccines to provide.”

The county will temporarily close its COVID-19 vaccine clinics in North County and South County next week, due to limited vaccine supply. The county plans to keep the San Luis Obispo clinic at Cuesta College open next week, where mostly second-dose appointments will be available. More information will be provided as officials get more details about next week’s COVID-19 vaccine allocations. The North and South County vaccine clinics will reopen when the county public health department receives more vaccine from the State.

“We continue to ask the state for more vaccines. We want to continue to vaccinate those who are vulnerable to COVID-19 exposure or serious health outcomes,” Dr. Borenstein said.

For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine, visit www.RecoverSLO.org/vaccines or call the county’s Phone Assistance Center at (805) 543-2444, now available 7 days a week, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

About the author: News Staff

News staff of the A-Town Daily News wrote and edited this article from local contributors and press releases. Scott Brennan is the publisher of this newspaper and founder of Access Publishing. Connect with him on Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn, or follow his blog. He can be reached at [email protected].