Santa Barbara County resumes vaccination clinics after pause due to winter weather across the U.S.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Lines of patients looking for their COVID-19 vaccine reformed at Santa Barbara City College’s Wake Center. Last week Santa Barbara County Public Health had to cancel three clinics due to a delay in shipment.

The shipments were grounded due to severe winter weather across the country. The canceled clinics were in Lompoc, Santa Barbara and Santa Maria.

On Tuesday the Public Health mobile clinic was doing double duty to catch up from last week.

Health officials said they received their last week’s supply on Monday, along with this week’s supply. And they hope no more future delays will cause future cancelations.

Nick Clay is the Santa Barbara County EMS Agency director. He said, "Without that every week delivery we can't, as you saw, we can't continue. So until there's enough supply to meet the demand, we're going to live every week to week hoping for Southern California weather across the country."

Clay added there's a silver lining to the delay, they get to test double capacity at their clinic.

"1,600 for us is what we're doing today," said Clay. "We have a bit of a condensed period throughout the day where we have almost 200 clients an hour, and in some 250 clients per hour, which is a massive increase from what we normally do, which is 100 clients per hour."

Those who received their vaccine a week late said they were relieved to get the dose. They said they received a letter and a phone call about the cancelation and their appointment rescheduling. 

To find out when it’s your turn to get a vaccine call 2-1-1 or visit the Santa Barbara County Public Health website.