'I'm Sorry To Hundreds Of Thousands Of People': LA COVID Vaccination Sites To Have Fewer Appointments
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) - Los Angeles County's Public Health Director is asking for patience because Cal State, Northridge, and several other large-scale county vaccination sites will have fewer appointments available this week.
"First, I want to say I'm so sorry to the hundreds of thousands of people, particularly those people who are 65 and older," said Dr. Barbara Ferrer of the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
L.A. County is expected to get about 137,000 doses to distribute this week, however, 89,000 of them have been guaranteed to people who need their second shot. That leaves less than 50,000 available for new appointments for the week.
"Our biggest problem, our biggest challenge, is just scarcity of vaccine," added Ferrer Sunday.
Ferrer said L.A. County has been allocated about 685,000 doses from the federal government that went through the state. So far, about 520,000 doses have been administered.
In Riverside County, appointments have been completely booked up for the week.
"About 10,000 appointments were filled in 30 minutes," said Shane Reichardt of the Riverside County Emergency Management Department. "It's led to frustrations. The appointment system is getting overwhelmed."
Los Angeles County reported 8,243 new cases of COVID-19 and 98 additional deaths Sunday, bringing the county's totals to 1,073,111 cases and 15,260 fatalities
Public health experts say if the weekly allotment for L.A. County doesn't improve dramatically, the vaccination process will likely extend into 2022.
The hope is the Biden administration will ramp up production and Johnson & Johnson will get emergency use authorization for its one dose vaccine to help increase the supply chain.
