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By Brianna Abbott and Melanie Grayce West 

The severe weather sweeping across the U.S. is disrupting Covid-19 vaccine distribution, complicating a bumpy rollout that had started smoothing out only in recent weeks.

A brutal winter storm, which left millions of Americans without electricity, water and heat in freezing conditions, has also closed some Covid-19 vaccination and testing sites and delayed vaccine shipments to states. The disruption has forced health authorities and government officials to postpone or cancel appointments across the country.

Federal officials are projecting widespread delays in vaccine shipments and deliveries over the next few days. The weather has affected operations at the FedEx Corp. facility in Memphis, Tenn., and the United Parcel Service Inc. facility in Louisville, Ky., both of which are vaccine hubs for multiple states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday.

In at least one instance, the power outages across several states have threatened the storage of the Covid-19 vaccines, which need to be kept at cold temperatures before administration. The Harris County Public Health building in Houston lost power early Monday morning, and the backup generator also failed, sending health officials scrambling to administer 8,430 doses of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, according to county officials.

"We got to work under the mission to avoid losing those vaccines with the loss of power," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said at a Monday media briefing. The doses were rushed off to local hospitals and an academic center, as well as the county jail, and officials were able to refreeze the rest, based on specific guidance from Moderna.

The Houston Methodist hospital system received 1,000 doses from the county, administering most on-site and sending a few hundred to a nearby synagogue, said Roberta Schwartz, executive vice president of Houston Methodist and its Covid-19 incidence manager. "We have never wasted a drop of vaccine," she said.

Vaccinations across the country have picked up in recent weeks following early missteps in distribution and administration. Public-health authorities have been sprinting to speed up the process of getting shots into patients' arms, as newer, highly transmissible variants threaten to upend the sharp decline in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations seen in recent weeks.

The harrowing weather across swaths of the U.S., however, is impeding the effort. Many vaccination and testing sites across Texas closed over the weekend and earlier in the week, according to local health officials, and some have yet to resume operations. Mississippi's free drive-through Covid-19 testing sites were closed Thursday, and almost all of the state-run vaccination sites were closed, according to the Department of Health.

In the Memphis area, county health officials have closed all vaccination sites through Feb. 20, moving all appointments to the same day and time the following week. Washington state health officials estimate that more than 90% of this week's allocation will arrive late.

UPS suspended operations at its Louisville facility on Monday night due to the snow and ice, with operations resuming on Tuesday morning, the company said.

FedEx didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.

Icy, dangerous roads have made it difficult for doses to reach health officials and vaccination sites and for patients to travel to clinics that do have shots. The delays in shipments and uncertainty of supply impedes the ability of health authorities to plan ahead.

The loss of water in some locations has also slowed the rollout, forcing many authorities to tackle that issue as a first priority, said Julie Swann, head of the industrial and systems engineering department at North Carolina State University. She estimated that the current delays will likely set back vaccination efforts by about a week, depending on the location.

Effects of the storm are also rippling across the country into areas that haven't been hit as hard. Health officials in Georgia and California have said that the postponed shipments will likely result in providers being forced to reschedule appointments.

"While it might not snow in San Diego, the snow is directly impacting San Diego," Nathan Fletcher, chair of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, said during a press conference on Wednesday, after saying that several shipments set to arrive in the county this week had been delayed.

In New Jersey, where snow fell steadily Thursday morning, Gov. Phil Murphy said he was expecting supply-chain issues. "We're working with a conservative expectation that our anticipated deliveries will not arrive as scheduled," the Democrat said.

Mr. Murphy said many of the state's vaccine megasites would be closed in anticipation of the storm, and appointments would be rescheduled.

In New York City, there were around 17,500 first doses of vaccine available on Thursday. Mayor Bill de Blasio said during a press conference that vaccine shipments expected to arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday likely won't arrive until Saturday or even Sunday. The majority of vaccines haven't left factories, the Democrat said.

"This is the situation we are in. It's been too hand-to-mouth in general and then it's been made even worse by the storm," Mr. de Blasio said.

In Rockland County, just north of New York City, officials have rescheduled some appointments for second vaccine doses because of the delayed shipments and said the dates and times of future vaccination appointments will be based on supply. Vaccine shipments have been "delayed in order to protect the integrity of the vaccine to keep everyone safe," the department said.

In Jefferson County, in upstate New York, the county health department on Thursday said vaccination clinics didn't receive first doses this week. "At this time, it is not clear when the vaccine shipments will arrive," the department said in an advisory.

--Talal Ansari contributed to this article.

Write to Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com and Melanie Grayce West at melanie.west@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 18, 2021 19:34 ET (00:34 GMT)

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