Short On Supply, LA's Mass Vaccination Sites To Close Friday

LOS ANGELES, CA — The nation's largest vaccination site — Dodger Stadium — will have to go dark in the middle of the pandemic this week because the city will have used up all its allotment of coronavirus vaccines by Friday, Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday.

Noting that the city of nearly 4 million residents received only 16,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine this week — barely more than a single day's supply— the mayor issued a desperate plea for help.

"I'm hoping that there's some federal official out there, some state official who tonight got the good news that some more doses are on their way someplace and tell us `Hey, you don't have to go dark on Friday, you don't have to go dark on Saturday,"' Garcetti said. "Because if we get that news tomorrow, we'll have that rocking and rolling at Dodger Stadium and the four other sites for the rest of the week."

The Dodger Stadium site and four other city-run mass vaccination sites will have to close Friday and Saturday unless an unexpected shipment arrives in Los Angeles. They would remain closed until the middle of next week when more supples of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines are expected, Garcetti said.

According to the mayor, the city is vaccinating residents faster than the state or federal government can supply them. Already, the city has administered 98 percent of its 293,252 dose- supply.

"We're vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles, and I'm very concerned right now," Garcetti said. "By tomorrow, this city will have exhausted its current supply of the Moderna vaccine for first-dose appointments," Garcetti said.

Garcetti said the city's successes in administering the supply of doses should be reason for more vaccines to be sent. He said he couldn't understand why Los Angeles received so few doses this week.

"Doesn't mean we haven't asked, doesn't mean the state isn't trying. But you know the federal government is saying 11 million doses are going out there, there's something screwed up in the system," Garcetti said. "I'm not pointing fingers, I'm here to help, but I need everybody to help me too so that we aren't put in that position of suddenly going dark on the biggest vaccination center in the world."

Even though the city's mass vaccination sites will have to shut down this week, its mobile clinics will still be able to conduct outreach to vulnerable populations through the end of the week..

The mobile vaccination pilot program begin in Council District 8 last week and administered more than 1,700 shots, over two-thirds of which went to Black Angelenos, Garcetti said.

The program's capacity was doubled this week as it was expanded into Council District 9, and Garcetti expects the capacity to triple next week with the addition of the city's third mobile unit in the eastside of Los Angeles in Council District 14.

"Even with fewer vaccines and having to shut down Dodger Stadium, we will keep those going this week because we can't afford to see the outbreaks and quite frankly the unequal deaths that we're seeing in communities of color," Garcetti said.

City News Service contributed to this report.