LA County Super Sites Administering Only Second COVID Doses; FEMA Site To Open At Cal State LA Tuesday
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The COVID-19 vaccine shortage continues to hamper vaccination efforts across Los Angeles County.
For the second straight week, L.A. County's seven large-scale county-run vaccination sites will only be reserving appointments to those needing their second doses.
"Next week the majority of appointments at our vaccinations sites will continue to be for second doses," Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer for the county, said Friday. "We will only be providing second doses at our Mega-POD (point of dispending) sites."
The county-operated super sites are at the Pomona Fairplex, Magic Mountain, The Forum, the county Office of Education in Downey, Cal State Northridge and El Sereno Recreation Center.
Simon said first doses will still be available at other locations, primarily at health centers and pharmacies. CVS began administering vaccines last week.
On Friday and Saturday, the city of L.A. was forced to shut its five city-run mass vaccine sites, including Dodger Stadium, because it had exhausted its supply by Thursday.
Dodger Stadium is expected to reopen Tuesday.
"We share their frustration," Simon said. "We're all frustrated. We know that we could do much more if we had more doses. For example, we're now receiving about 200,000 doses each week, and as we've surveyed all of our providers, we're confident that we could administer up to 600,000 doses a week. So we have much, much greater capacity if we can get the available vaccine."
A new super site co-managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the state will open Tuesday at Cal State University Los Angeles in East L.A.
The site will be capable of vaccinating up to 6,000 people per day. Although it is unclear exactly how many doses it will have on hand this week.
It will offer both drive-thru and walk up appointments.
It's one of 100 such FEMA-run vaccinations sites being established nationwide. About 200 troops were deployed from Fort Carson Colorado to L.A. last week to help with distribution at the site.
Simon said that most recent figures show that over 1.34 million doses have been administered in L.A. County, with 1.047 million of them being first doses. A total of 13.5% of the county's population aged 16 and over have received at least one dose, and 3.8% of that population are fully vaccinated.
Right now, only healthcare workers, those over 65 and nursing home residents are eligible for the vaccine in L.A. County.
RELATED: COVID Vaccinations For People With Disabilities, Compromised Immune Systems To Begin March 15
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)
