Around 6,300 people may have been given a less than recommended dosage of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, the California Department of Public Health said Tuesday.
The mistakenly distributed doses at the Oakland Coliseum vaccination site were reportedly a result of "human error."
The department said that the less than recommended dosage shouldn't cause any concerns and the people that had been under dosed do not need to come back. The department said that the affected resident will only need to return to get their second shot.
"While the recommended dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is 0.3 ml, the CDC has determined that any dosage of 0.15 ml or larger is safe and does not require the dose to be repeated to protect people against COVID-19," Department of Public Health spokeswoman, Ali Bay, said in a statement.
The department said that people that went in Sunday to get vaccinated only received a dose of 0.22 ml, which was still within the range outlined by the CDC. Bay said that an on-site staff was able to correct the vaccine dosage Monday afternoon. To avoid any further mistakes, the department said that it will be implementing additional training and quality assurance steps.
The department said that it has already sent emails and letters to the people that had received smaller doses.
"In consultation with vaccine experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Pfizer, we have determined that some individuals who received a vaccine during this time may have received slightly less than the recommended dose," the letter reads.
The announcement comes just days after anonymous sources told local media reporters that thousands of people were being under dosed by the state. Officials denied the allegations and said that the number of people affected was greatly exaggerated.
Health experts said that based on how vaccines work, the under dosing incident shouldn't cause alarm. The residents that had received the less than recommended doses should still be protected from the virus, experts said.
