San Francisco officials say vaccine rollout has reached most older residents but supply remains the limiting factor

San Francisco public health officials told the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on April 22 that the city has built vaccine distribution capacity and has made large gains in protecting older and vulnerable residents, but that limited federal supply remains the single biggest constraint to faster progress.

Dr. Bhabha of the Department of Public Health said the city has received about 850,000 vaccine doses and that “65 percent of those 16 and over have at least received one dose, and 42 percent have gotten fully vaccinated,” while noting those figures vary by how the denominator is defined. She added that more than 85 percent of residents 65 and older have had at least one dose and about 70 percent have completed the series.

The presentation emphasized three delivery channels: high-volume mass sites (Moscone South, City College and SF Market), community vaccine access sites that prioritize equity, and pharmacy partnerships. Mary Ellen Carroll, director at the Emergency Management/COVID Command operation, described the three mass sites and local partnerships with health systems such as Kaiser Permanente, UCSF and Sutter Health that have supplied staffing and logistics support.

"Our strategy has always been speed, equity and partnerships," Dr. Bhabha said, adding that the city can operate up to 20,000 vaccinations per day if federal supply increases. City officials said their largest recent single-day operations exceeded 16,000 vaccinations and that the highest earlier peak reached nearly 11,000.

Despite the capacity, presenters said supply reductions — including the temporary pause of Johnson & Johnson doses and redirected allocations to pharmacies at the state and federal level — have reduced the city’s weekly shipments and complicated scheduling. "Supply issues are our biggest barrier, and that's what we have the least control over," Dr. Bhabha said.

Officials highlighted targeted efforts to reach people with barriers to access: an outbound call center that has placed roughly 25,000 calls to high-priority residents; mobile teams that have run about 50 mobile events through the week of April 18 and 10 more scheduled; and outreach to specific neighborhoods including Bayview, Mission, Excelsior, Tenderloin, Chinatown and Treasure Island. Mobile teams were described as a nurse and administrative assistant that can visit homebound residents, encampments, shelters and SROs.

Supervisor Matt Haney asked whether the city remained on track to offer vaccine to every resident who wants it by June. Dr. Bhabha said the city has built the systems needed but repeated that projections depend on external supply: "As long as the supply continues and there are not any major other issues that come up with the vaccine, I think we will have the ability to say by the June the vaccine has reached a place where everybody who wants it should have been able to get one."

The department also discussed plans for younger ages: officials said they are preparing outreach for 16–17-year-olds and are planning with school systems and providers for the likely FDA/CDC authorizations for 12–15-year-olds.

On operational points, officials advised homebound residents to use the city's getvaccinated.sf.gov resources and the call center to arrange visits. They also said the city maintains communication channels with pharmacies (Walgreens, CVS, Safeway) that receive federal allocations, but that those pharmacies set their appointment systems on state/federal platforms.

The committee took no final action on the update; after the presentation and Q&A Chair Marr moved to continue the matter to the call of the chair and the motion passed by roll call with three ayes.