On a day of confusion and frustration, Los Angeles vaccination sites that were scheduled to close on Friday due to a shortage of supplies ran out of doses earlier than expected and had to refuse people on Thursday.
The incident underscored the severe shortage of supplies as California tries to expand vaccination beyond medical workers and the elderly to other groups, including essential professionals and teachers. Los Angeles County officials said they hope to expand eligibility in the coming weeks, but acknowledged that there will be competition to obtain doses until the supply chain is opened.
The sites will reopen when the city receives more vaccines, said Mayor Eric Garcetti – probably not before the President’s Day holiday.
The city received just 16,000 doses this week, compared with 90,000 doses the week before. The reason for the substantial drop was not clear, said Garcetti. He urged federal and state agencies to send vaccines to the city.
“When the vaccines arrive in Los Angeles, we know how to administer them,” he said. “We have a great infrastructure set up … and we will deliver it to staff efficiently and safely. The problem is that we are still not getting enough doses soon. “
The five venues, including Dodger Stadium, Crenshaw Christian Center, San Fernando, Lincoln Park and Hansen Dam, were scheduled to close Friday. As of Thursday morning, they had already run out of stock, according to Andrea Garcia, a spokesman for Garcetti.
“Due to an unforeseen shortage of vaccine supplies today, LA’s vaccination sites ran out of doses earlier than expected,” said Garcia, adding that the city was able to secure additional vaccines and reschedule nearly 3,000 morning appointments at Dodger Stadium on Thursday afternoon.
According to the mayor’s office, additional doses were obtained at a county location through the LA County Department of Public Health.
The shortage exacerbated growing concerns about vaccine supplies amid a week already mired in unpredictability, with Garcetti on Wednesday calling vaccine supply issues “a huge hurdle in our race to vaccinate Angelenos.”
“We are vaccinating people faster than new bottles are arriving here in Los Angeles, and I am very concerned now,” said Garcetti.
Although Dodger Stadium was in the process of becoming the country’s largest vaccination site, with the capacity to administer 12,000 vaccines per day, vaccination totals at the site rarely came close to that goal, hovering around 7,000 per day.
Although the city-run sites were preparing to close on Friday and Saturday, people who arrived at the locations for the photos on Thursday morning were surprised to learn that they were already finished.
“There was no notice or email sent notifying us,” said Vanessa, a health worker who asked that her surname not be revealed. Vanessa received her first dose at Lincoln Park on January 16 and did not know that she would not receive a second dose as scheduled until she arrived on Thursday.
“At the entrance, someone was there telling all of us that they didn’t get the vaccines today and Carbon Health would be in touch to reschedule,” she said. “Everyone was parking, just to go up and hear that there were none.”
City officials said everyone affected by Thursday’s shortage was notified that they could go to Dodger Stadium between noon and 7 pm to receive the scheduled shot. Carbon Health issued text messages, calls and emails to reschedule 2,987 appointments, said spokeswoman Lindsey Whitehouse.
At the municipal level, vaccination sites remain open, but with a focus on second doses. Pomona Fairplex, the Forum, the County Office of Education in Downey, Cal State Northridge, El Sereno, the Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia and the Balboa Sports Complex in Encino are limited to second doses for the rest of the week only.
“Anyone who gets the first dose at these locations will not be vaccinated,” said the LA County Department of Public Health.
Fluctuating supply levels are making it difficult for California, as a whole, to meet vaccination demand. Only 2.4% of the approximately 40 million people living in the state received both doses, according to The Times vaccination tracker.
On Thursday, President Biden announced that his government had secured a total of 600 million doses, divided equally between Pfizer and Moderna, to be delivered by the end of July. That amount will be enough to fully vaccinate all of the approximately 260 million people eligible for vaccines in the United States
Moderna agreed to deliver 100 million doses by the end of March, an additional 100 million by the end of June and the final 100 million by the end of July. Pfizer is expected to achieve the same target as in March and says it is on schedule to deliver an additional 100 million by the end of May, two months ahead of its contractual obligation. The company is also expected to supply its final 100 million by the end of July.
But vaccine manufacturers need to increase their pace to stay on target.
Moderna is on track to deliver 6.7 million doses to the federal government next week. If that weekly rate remains the same, Moderna will have 14 million less of its 100 million dose target by the end of March. If Pfizer maintains its weekly rate of 4.2 million doses, the company will have 33 million fewer doses from its target of 100 million doses by the end of March.
A Moderna representative said that “production and launches are not linear” and said the company will be able to increase production yields over time. Pfizer representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About 1.2 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna combined are flowing to California each week.
Federal officials say they expect the situation to improve in the coming months.
The United States may see a “hunting season” at doses of the COVID-19 vaccine until April, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Thursday, an optimistic forecast that arises as states continue to call for additional supplies to increase their implementations.
Although the country is still far from administering the doses to everyone who needs it by then, Fauci said he believed that conditions would improve to the point where health officials began to inoculate the general population.
“I imagine that, when we get to April, this will be what I would call, for better writing, ‘public bidding’ – that is, practically everyone and anyone in any category could start getting vaccinated”, says the head of government specialist in infectious diseases said during an apparition on NBC’s “Today” program.
In California, anyone who works in the health field, lives in long-term care facilities or is 65 or older can be vaccinated. Teachers, daycare centers and other educators, food and agriculture workers and law enforcement officials are also eligible – although many local health departments still have to allow these groups must register for consultations, as the vaccine stock remains tight.
Health officials across the country said the offer is the biggest impediment to speed up vaccinations. Dose allocations have varied from week to weekand, until recently, employees received little insight into what their shipments would look like even a few weeks into the future, making long-term planning a challenge.
Across the country, almost 66 million doses of vaccine have been delivered, and about 44.8 million have been administered, according to the latest numbers Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.