The COVID-19 vaccination site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, along with four other locations in the city, will be temporarily closed due to massive shortages, mayor Eric Garcetti
Eric Garcetti Los Angeles Vaccination Site Temporarily Closed by Protesters LA Mayor Receives First Dose of Coronavirus Vaccine After Spending Days at Grammys Super Deferred for Coronavirus Concerns (D) said.
The mayor announced on Wednesday that the city’s five walking and walking sites will be closed starting Friday for at least two days. The sites could reopen on Tuesday or Wednesday, he predicted.
Garcetti criticized the city’s vaccine supply, which is expected to be depleted on Thursday, as “unpredictable”, “uneven” and “unacceptable”. He mentioned that Los Angeles received 16,000 new doses this week, a little more than the total he administers per day. Los Angeles received 90,000 doses last week and 29,000 doses the previous week, he added.
“We vaccinate people faster than new bottles arrive here in Los Angeles and I’m very worried right now,” the mayor said during a press briefing.
“This is a huge obstacle in our Angelenos vaccination race,” he added.
Garcetti stressed that the second scheduled dose will not be affected, but “will prevent us from moving forward with new doses.”
He said he did not want to “point fingers”, but said other cities with smaller populations than Los Angeles were receiving more doses.
“I don’t want to stray from a single dose, but it’s fair for Los Angeles to receive a steady supply to meet when we need it,” he added.
The city will maintain open mobile sites that it has deployed in South Los Angeles, where a disproportionate number of residents have been infected and killed by COVID-19.
Overall, Los Angeles administered 293,252 vaccines with an average of 13,051 daily vaccinations.
Increases in cases, deaths and hospitalizations in late December and early January and since then have begun to level in Los Angeles, according to county data.
The county has an average seven-day positivity test rate of 8.4 percent, less than the 20 percent recorded around New Year’s Day, but still above the 5 percent threshold that experts want to see before consider reopening.