FEMA opened its first mass vaccination sites COVID-19 on Tuesday, settling in Los Angeles and Oakland as part of an effort by the Biden government to fire gun shots more quickly and reach minority communities hard hit by the outbreak. .
Snowy and icy weather in much of the United States, however, forced the cancellation of some vaccination events and threatened to halt vaccine deliveries in the coming days. The Houston public health agency lost strength and had to struggle to give thousands of injections before they broke down.
Developments emerged as vaccination skyrocketed. The United States is administering an average of about 1.67 million doses per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, deaths have fallen dramatically in the past six weeks and new cases have plummeted.
Nearly 39.7 million Americans, or about 12% of the United States’ population, received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 15 million received both vaccines, the CDC said.
Deaths are around 2,400 a day on average, a drop of more than 900 from the peak in mid-January. And the average number of new cases per day has dropped to about 85,000, the lowest in three and a half months. That’s a drop from a peak of almost 250,000 a day in early January. The total death toll in the USA is almost 490,000.
Early in the morning in Los Angeles, several dozen cars were already lined up with people sitting inside reading newspapers and spending time, half an hour before the inauguration of the country’s first mass vaccination station administered with the help of Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Troops in camouflage uniforms stood around the large parking lot at California State University in Los Angeles, where about 40 white tents were erected and dozens of orange cones were placed to guide traffic.
The site, installed in eastern LA as part of an effort to reach communities that have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus, aims to vaccinate up to 6,000 people a day. Another location opened at the Oakland Coliseum, close to the working class black and Latin neighborhoods.
The hard-hit California surpassed New York State with the highest death toll in the country, with more than 47,000.
The Los Angeles vaccination site is “close to a community that has been disproportionately impacted by this pandemic,” said Governor Gavin Newsom. “The effort here is to solve this problem directly.”
The Biden government plans to establish 100 of these vaccination sites assisted by the federal government across the country, in cooperation with state officials.
Elsewhere in the country, the coronavirus has placed a large buffer on Mardi Gras in New Orleans. French Quarter Bourbon Street, where the loudest and most obscene parties usually take place, was blocked with police barricades and the bars were closed.
“It’s hard to understand,” said New Orleans lawyer Dave Lanser, wearing a luminescent green cloak and a black mask with a curved beak, as he looked up and down an almost empty Bourbon Street.
“I don’t think there is a way to do this safely this year,” he said. “So, I support canceling parades, closing bars, that kind of thing. It is the reality of that. “
Mardi Gras’ crowds last year were blamed for a serious COVID-19 outbreak in Louisiana.
Snow, ice and intense cold forced vaccines to be canceled in places like Memphis, Tennessee and Missouri.
Harris County, Houston, rushed to deliver more than 8,000 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after a public health facility lost power on Monday and its backup generator also failed, officials said. The shots were distributed in three hospitals, Rice University and the county prison.
“It feels incredible. I am very grateful, ”said Harry Golen, a 19-year-old sophomore who waited almost four hours with his friends, mostly in the freezing cold, and was one of the last people to have his injections – which he would not otherwise did not reach students until March or April.
More than 400,000 additional doses of vaccine due in Texas will not arrive until at least Wednesday, officials said.
The Biden administration said the harsh weather should disrupt shipments from a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS facility in Louisville, Kentucky. Both serve as centers for sending vaccines to various states.
The government is increasing the amount of vaccine sent to states to 13.5 million doses a week, an increase of 57% since Biden took office almost a month ago, announced White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Psaki also said that the administration is doubling the amount of vaccine sent to pharmacies in the United States to 2 million doses a week as part of a program to improve neighborhood access.
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Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.