Santa Barbara County vaccine clinics closed due to winter storms across the country

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — A third of the country’s population is under winter storm this week. The storms are delaying shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine coming to California and a couple of vaccine clinics have canceled their rollout due to the delays.

On Wednesday, Santa Barbara County Public Health canceled three vaccination rollouts, Wednesday in Santa Maria, Thursday in Lompoc and Friday in Santa Barbara.

Public Health officials said the allotment delayed is the Moderna vaccine. And all patients whose appointment was canceled will be notified and automatically rescheduled for the same time and day the following week.

Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics is currently doing a once a week vaccination clinic. Despite using the Moderna vaccine for this Saturday’s clinic, they will remain open. Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinic’s chief medical officer, Dr. Charles Fenzi, said they will be giving the second dose of the Moderna vaccine this weekend. However he is concerned about when their next shipment will arrive. 

Cottage Hospital will continue with their vaccine rollouts Thursday and Friday as scheduled. A spokeswoman for the hospital said they are using the Pfizer-Biotech vaccine this week and have enough doses for the about thousand patients scheduled the next two weeks.