KTLA

Kaiser cancels vaccine appointments for more than 5,000 seniors in Santa Clara County

A nurse prepares medication as she cares for a coronavirus COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at Regional Medical Center on May 21, 2020 in San Jose, California. Frontline workers are continuing to care for coronavirus COVID-19 patients throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. Santa Clara county, where this hospital is located, has had the most deaths of any Northern California county, and the earliest known COVID-19 related deaths in the United States. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A vaccine shortage has forced Kaiser Permanente to cancel more than 5,000 appointments in Santa Clara County for seniors who had been set to receive COVID-19 inoculations.

In what Kaiser spokesman Marc Brown called “a very unfortunate development,” the hospital failed to receive the vaccines it anticipated when people had booked appointments for late January and early February.

Brown said staff had scheduled people for the vaccine based on previous deliveries and “guidance” from the state and county.

“We understand the frustration this causes, and we are continuing to do all we can to increase the supply of vaccines, working in partnership with county, state and federal governments,” Brown said in an email in response to questions from The Times.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.