Los Angeles County will again reserve most of its Covid-19 vaccines available next week to provide second doses to those ready to receive them, with large-scale operated sites administering second doses exclusively, health officials said at the time. Friday.
“In the coming week, most visits to our vaccination sites will continue to be for second doses,” said Dr. Paul Simon, director of sciences for the county’s Department of Public Health. “We will only be providing second doses at our Mega-POD (distribution point) locations.” That was after providing only a second injection this week, two consecutive weeks that the county had to postpone the appointments for the first dose because of problems with the vaccine supply.
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County-operated Mega-PODs are at Pomona Fairplex, Magic Mountain, at the Forum, at the County Education Office in Downey and Cal State Northridge.
He said that the first doses will be available in other places, mainly in health centers, pharmacies “and other providers that serve the areas most affected by the Covid-19 pandemic”.
The county has received about 200,000 doses per week, although the actual amount has varied enormously, making it difficult to plan reservations in advance. Supplies were so limited this week that the city of Los Angeles was forced to close the Dodger Stadium vaccination site and four other locations in the city over the weekend because it had run out of supplies on Thursday afternoon. It is unclear how the county’s continuing scarcity will affect the Dodger Stadium site next week.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that the site ran out of vaccine because the city’s allocation fell more than 80% week after week.
“This week we received just 16,000 new doses. It is the number of new doses that we distribute every day, ”he said. “This is 90,000 below the previous week. This is unacceptable. “
“At a briefing from our county partners this morning,” said the mayor on Wednesday, “we found that other cities with smaller populations are receiving more doses than our entire county with a larger population. When we look at places with lower cases, we see 50% more doses going to other cities. I don’t want to take a single dose of them, but it’s just that Los Angeles receives a constant supply to meet the moment of our need. “
According to The Fresno Bee, Fresno County’s allocation was doubled to 19,000 doses this week. Last week, the county received 8,000.
So, who is in charge of allocations?
The US government decides how many doses each state receives each week. The state divides these doses between counties and major health systems. The county would then issue an allocation for the city.
The CA uses a formula designed to estimate how many people in an area are eligible to decide allocations. But the drop experienced in LA this week – especially compared to Fresno – doesn’t seem fair, given that LA is a city of 3 million people.
“We share your frustration,” said Dr. Paul Simon, of LA County. “We are all frustrated. We know that we could do much more if we had more doses. For example, we are now receiving around 200,000 doses per week and, as we surveyed all of our providers, we are confident that we could administer up to 600,000 doses per week. So we will have much, much more capacity if we can get the vaccine available ”.
Garcetti was pointed out this week that pressure from the state to rapidly expand vaccination sites is drying up a supply of vaccines that is already in short supply.
Asked more specifically whether the increased prevalence of vaccination sites may have contributed to the drop in supply, Garcetti noted: “It’s a bit of a Hunger Games out there. We are doing a kind of ‘approach to everything above’. I think part of that is that we went to so many places without the corresponding supply, that you saw some of the main places … like ours and the county’s mega sites don’t have that much supply. “
In fact, on Thursday, long waits plagued the county’s vaccination site at the Inglewood Forum because people without an appointment showed up. A gun catcher reported a three-hour delay.
The county Department of Public Health told the City News Service that the delays were “due to more than 1,000 individuals who showed up at the scene for a second dose, but had no appointment.”
The county did not refuse individuals eligible for a second dose. This increased the registration time for almost half of the people on the site. Additional staff has been deployed to help manage delays, according to the county.
Dr. Simon and county health officer Dr. Muntu Davis said that increasing supplies will be critical as more people become eligible for injections – noting that the state announced plans on Friday to expand eligibility next month for all people aged 16 and over who have medical conditions or disabilities that make them highly susceptible to Covid’s death or serious illness.
Davis acknowledged the general trend of improvement in daily cases, but emphasized that, although the numbers are improving, they are still high and “the risk of finding someone with COVID-19 who may not know it is still very high”.
In terms of vaccines, Simon said that the latest figures show 1,345,949 doses administered in the municipality, 1,047,074 of which are first doses. A total of 13.5% of the county’s population aged 16 or older received at least one dose and 3.8% of that population is fully vaccinated.
The City News Service contributed to this report.