With the Oakland Coliseum mass vaccination site scheduled to close a few days before California opens eligibility for everyone aged 16 and over, state and city officials are begging for more time and doses. But federal officials said on Friday that they are maintaining plans to leave the site in just over a week.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is co-administering the site with the California Office of Emergency Services, said the eight-week program for affected communities would end on April 11 as planned. The agency said it will not be able to continue giving the Coliseum, along with a second mass vaccination site at California State University Los Angeles, its federal government vaccine allocations.
The closure is appropriate because the state is expected to receive a large increase in vaccine supplies soon, according to an FEMA spokesman. But local officials say they cannot count on this increase.
The spokesman discussed the agency’s decision on Friday, under the condition that it be attributed without his name.
State and federal officials opened the Oakland and Los Angeles locations in mid-February and said they would be operational for eight weeks. But as the closing date approaches, the demand for vaccines is increasing, say local authorities, and is set to explode on April 15, when the state opens immunizations to anyone who wants to.
On Friday, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Colleen Chawla, director of the Alameda County Health Services Agency, sent separate letters to FEMA Acting Administrator Robert Fenton, requesting state and federal authorities to maintain the site running for another four weeks while the county plans to take over. They also asked that the site continue to receive its federal allocation of more than 40,000 weekly doses.
“The planned April 11 closure comes at a time when all adults in our county will be eligible for the vaccine,” Chawla said in his letter to FEMA. “Losing the additional Colosseum vaccine at a time of increased eligibility will not only increase pressure on our smaller county-administered vaccination sites, but will also cause confusion and erode the trust and momentum we have built with community partners.”
Earlier in the week, Cal OES director Mark Ghilarducci sent a letter to Fenton asking the federal government to continue supplying its weekly doses to both locations, should local authorities end up taking over.
“Without a continuous allocation of federal vaccine dedicated to these locations, Cal OES is concerned with the positive momentum that has been achieved so far and, most importantly, the confidence of the community that has been established in the past seven and a half weeks … will be diminished or potentially lost if services are interrupted, ”said Ghilarducci in his letter.
Alameda County officials said Friday afternoon that they “are looking forward” to hearing from FEMA.
Chawla said county officials held informal talks with state and federal officials about how to keep the two locations operational for up to six months. She said she was surprised when she learned two weeks ago that FEMA intended to maintain the April 11 strike.
Since then, she said the county has been struggling to see if it can take control of the site. Nearly 15% of all vaccines administered to Alameda County residents were at the Colosseum, Chawla said.
It quickly became clear that the county would need more time and resources to take over the massive operation. One problem is the supply of vaccines: the Colosseum site alone administers 42,000 vaccines a week. The municipality receives only 30,000 doses per week.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Thursday that federal and local authorities have reached an agreement to keep Cal State’s Los Angeles website open. On April 12, the city of Los Angeles will begin operating the mass vaccination site, Newsom said.
“But let’s put that in perspective. … The two FEMA sites combined represent less than 4% of our entire delivery system, ”said Newsom. “Therefore, it is not profound in terms of impact. Even so, it is an impact and we try to get as many doses as we can. “
If local governments take over the operation, FEMA will leave all employees hired locally, including those serving six mobile clinics, according to the agency. FEMA has also pledged to continue to cover all operating costs for each location until October 30th.
Meghan Bobrowsky is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @MeghanBobrowsky