COVID-19 Vaccine Site at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, along with four other sites in the city, will temporarily close 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 In Super Location Grammys Postponed Due To Coronavirus Concerns MORE (D) said.
The mayor announced on Wednesday that the city’s five walk-up and drive-through locations will close for at least two days starting Friday. The sites could reopen Tuesday or Wednesday, he predicted.
Garcetti condemned the supply of vaccines to the city, which is expected to be exhausted Thursday, as ‘unpredictable’, ‘unequal’ and ‘unacceptable’. He noted that Los Angeles received 16,000 new doses this week, slightly more than the total it administers per day. Los Angeles received 90,000 doses last week and 29,000 doses the week before, he added.
“We are vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles and I am very concerned at the moment,” the mayor said at a news conference.
“This is a huge hurdle in our race to vaccinate Angelenos,” he added.
Garcetti stressed that scheduled second doses will not be affected, but “it will prevent us from continuing with new first doses.”
He said he didn’t want to point the finger, but noted that other cities with a smaller population than Los Angeles are getting more doses.
“I don’t want to take any dose off them, but it’s only reasonable that Los Angeles gets a steady supply to meet the moment of our need,” he added.
The city will keep open mobile sites it has deployed in South Los Angeles, where a disproportionate number of residents have been infected and killed by COVID-19.
In total, Los Angeles delivered 293,252 vaccines with an average of 13,051 inoculations per day.
The spikes in cases, deaths, and hospitalizations in late December and early January are beginning to level off in Los Angeles, according to data from the county.
The province has an average seven-day positive test rate of 8.4 percent, lower than the 20 percent recorded around New Year’s Day, but still above the 5 percent threshold that experts want to see before considering reopening.