After a freezer full of Covid-19 vaccines broke, a California hospital struggled to administer more than 800 doses in about 2 hours.

After a freezer full of Covid-19 vaccines broke, a California hospital struggled to administer more than 800 doses in about 2 hours.

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And they accepted the challenge.

The executive team at Mendocino County’s Adventist Health Ukiah Valley Medical Center was notified during a security inspection Monday morning that a freezer was found at room temperature, Adventist Health’s Judson Howe told CNN. And the alarm that was supposed to alert the team to the temperature change was also defective.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, Moderna’s vaccine can be stored in normal freezers and does not require ultra-cold transport. But at room temperature, the vaccine has a shelf life of about 12 hours, Howe said.

Hospital staff contacted Moderna, but received no response. So, the hospital decided to race against the clock and administer the vaccines.

“Our main focus was to ensure that we put all vaccines in all arms. We contacted the county public health officer and informed them about the situation and, with a collaborative approach, we were able to administer all 830 vaccines in one matter of two hours, “said Howe.

Hospital staff only had about two hours to coordinate all efforts.
The freezer breakdown occurs when local and state leaders across the country strive to get all the vaccines distributed to be administered – amid what has also been a slower-than-expected distribution of the vaccine. In California, only about 27% of the vaccines distributed have reached arms so far. Governor Gavin Newsom this week pledged “aggressive action” to speed up vaccine administration, including granting an exemption that will allow dentists to administer the vaccine after training.

About 200 doses went to the county to administer, 70 went to qualified wards and the rest went to four clinics, prioritized according to state guidelines, said medical officer Dr. Bessant Parker.

The emergency was “everyone on deck,” says Parker, and he was also “running” to help coordinate the process.

“Since this was an emergency, we focused on as many people as we could quickly mobilize within the layers, and the rest went to the general public, based on the order of arrival,” said Parker. The hospital had to refuse at least 200 people who came in search of the vaccine. Those who received the shot received CDC cards for tracking purposes.

“The reality is that we faced a difficult situation and we were not going to waste any vaccine,” added Howe.

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The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office said the vaccines were administered to 97 people, including deputies, public security officials, prison deputies and other essential officials.

NaphCare, the county inmate’s health care provider, administered the vaccines, adding that they were distributed according to state health department guidelines.

“We had an unexpected ‘use it or lose it’ event,” said county CEO Carmel Angelo. “Thank you very much to Adventist Health for your prompt notification, to the NaphCare nurses for administering the vaccines and to the Sheriff’s Office for providing space and staff support. We hope this will never happen again, but we have learned that we can mobilize quickly to serve our community . “

The county has reported more than 2,600 cases of the virus. It is part of the designated Northern California region – which has about 30% availability of ICU and is the only group of counties that is not currently under a mandatory home stay request. The other four regions, which cover more than 98% of the state’s population, have less than 15% available ICU capacity, which triggered the order to stay at home in the state.

CNN’s Cheri Mossburg contributed to this report.

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