Once fully operational, the new sites will be able to vaccinate 4,000 people per day at each location. The province hopes to have completed an additional 500,000 vaccinations by the end of the month.
The new supersites are located at:
“People will stay in their cars and drive through the site, where they will be vetted, have an appointment, make sure they have ID. They will be vaccinated, and depending on whether they need to be observed for 15 minutes or 30 minutes,” is where they will be and they will remain in their car throughout the process, ”said Marco Rodriguez of the Los Angeles Fire Department.
How to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine in Southern California
A spokesperson for the LA County Fire Department said she was excited to receive her second dose of the vaccine at CSUN.
“It’s a hopeful moment for all of us. It’s a historic time. I mean, a few months ago we were doing COVID testing here and now we’re doing vaccines, so it feels kind of special today,” said Lydia Garillas. .
On Tuesdays, all sites are open by appointment only from 10am to 4.30pm, but from Wednesday every day at 9am. According to the county’s Public Health Department website, Tuesday’s appointments at CSUN and the Fairplex were all booked.
A prediction of high winds in the region prompted Orange County officials to temporarily close the vaccination site at Disneyland. However, the five new locations in LA have opened as planned despite the wind.
With Solis’s order, residents 65 and older can make vaccination appointments starting Thursday, despite health officials’ desire to vaccinate medical workers amid limited supply of medication.
The state opened up eligibility for vaccines for people over 65 earlier this month, but LA County was behind other Southern California counties in opening up vaccinations to that group.
Public health director Barbara Ferrer said last week that the county would not offer vaccines to people 65 and older until vaccinations from primary care health workers are completed. That process was expected to take until the end of the month.
Ferrer noted that increasing the availability of the injections depended largely on the local supply of vaccines.
It was not immediately known what impact Solis’s order would have on the province’s vaccine stockpile, and its ability to complete health worker vaccinations.
The county’s health department says it currently has enough shots on hand to treat 50,000 people.
“We’re getting our allocations for this week today and tomorrow, so we’ll be competing with the distribution that should help us next Monday. And then we just have to see how many doses we get the next week,” said Dr. Ferrer.
Meanwhile, many firefighters in Los Angeles County are already undergoing their second vaccinations.
Fire Chief Daryl Osby received the follow-up dose.
The chief says that 75% of his department has been vaccinated and that the infection rate has dropped sharply after the first dose.
“The people who are getting COVID now are the ones who haven’t been vaccinated, so the first shot does a really good job of keeping our members from getting COVID-19,” he said.
However, it is difficult to have all firefighters vaccinated. The chief says he can’t legally demand it, so he hopes scenes like Downey on Tuesday will inspire the rest of his department to take the photos.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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