California public health officials said on Monday that people who received a coronavirus vaccine at the Oakland Coliseum on February 28 and March 1 were likely to receive less than what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended for a single dose – confirming what a TV station reported in the past week.
The California Department of Public Health notified on Monday people who received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine after 4:30 pm on February 28 and between 8:00 am and 3:00 pm on March 1 about the results, which were determined with the help of the CDC experts.
Approximately 6,300 people scheduled appointments during this period that “could have been affected,” said California Department of Public Health spokesman Ali Bay.
The letter from the state health department appears to undermine statements made by state officials who run the Colosseum website in response to questions about underdosing. Last week, officials who run the clinic denied that anyone at the Colosseum received very little vaccine.
State health officials found that some individuals may have received a dose of about 0.22-0.3 milliliters each, instead of the recommended 0.3 ml of the Pfizer COVID vaccine. However, the CDC said that any dose greater than 0.15 ml is “safe and does not require the dose to be repeated to protect people from COVID-19,” says the letter.
Bay said the team at the Colosseum site corrected the dosage difference on March 1.
“The California Department of Public Health has implemented additional training and quality assurance steps as a preventive measure,” said state officials.
The letter was sent a few days after KTVU reported that two unidentified emergency medical technicians said that about 4,300 people who were vaccinated at the Oakland Coliseum on March 1 before 2 pm “received the wrong doses of the vaccine”. The syringes had leftover vaccine at the bottom of the container.
Jessica Flores is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @jesssmflores