Due to a shortage in supply, health officials say 824 people in Madera County are finding out their turn at receiving the COVID-19 vaccine has been postponed indefinitely.
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"It's really difficult for us to predict at the local level what that supply chain is going to look like in the coming weeks and months," says Madera County Public Health Director Sara Bosse.
Bosse says 20,735 vaccine doses were not enough to go around for all of those that had made appointments. She says the supply was cut in half. Initially, the county was under the impression that more vaccines would be on the way to fulfil second doses.
"We have had to quickly shift and reserve half of what we have currently been allocated as second doses," says Bosse. "We thought we were working with all first doses and that's just not the case."
Of the hundreds of appointments canceled, most were seniors over 75 years old. Health officials say it's still not clear when more doses will be allocated to Madera County.
"We really need to have the vaccine on hand before we are posting clinic dates and having people register," says Bosse. "We don't want to have people disappointed by the process of registering for an appointment and then having it canceled."
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Meantime, COVID-19 cases continue to climb in the North Valley as healthcare professionals brace for more fatalities.
"We are ready to go to war again with this next surge," says Fresno County EMS Director Daniel Lynch.
As of Wednesday, there are no ICU beds available in Madera County.
"We did deal with some issues over the last night with one of the hospitals that was totally inundated with ICU patients," Lynch says in a press conference on Tuesday.
Lynch was referring to the intensive care unit at Madera Community Hospital. He said three patients had to be moved to other Central Valley hospitals, while one patient was flown to Riverside and another was transported to UC Davis.