Mayor Eric Garcetti says the first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in Los Angeles are critically low again this week

The good news in Los Angeles this week is that the city’s largest Covid-19 vaccination site, at Dodger Stadium, will reopen. The bad news is that, for the second consecutive week, the city hardly has the first doses of the vaccine to administer.

Last week, we received only 16,000 new doses. “This is the number of new doses that we distribute every day,” said Mayor Eric Garcetti. “This is 90,000 below the previous week. This is unacceptable. “

Longer term

This week, Garcetti said in a statement that the city had received only 58,000 doses of the vaccine. This is much better than last week’s 16,000 new doses, but about 35% below the 90,000 doses administered the previous week.

As a result, said Garcetti, “the city will prioritize individuals whose second doses are expected in the coming days”.

This is bad news for the growing group of people who are eligible for vaccination.

“Given the low level of general supplies, approximately 4,600 first doses will be available throughout the week at the newest location in town at Pierce College and mobile vaccination clinics serving our most vulnerable communities.”

The city had an average of about 13,051 doses administered daily before the recent absences.

You can read the mayor’s full statement at the bottom of this post.

Los Angeles County will also limit most of its Covid-19 vaccines available this week to provide second doses to those who are ready to receive them, with large-scale operated sites administering second doses exclusively, health officials said at the time. Friday.

The story continues

“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.” This is after providing only a second injection last week, causing the county to have to postpone appointments for the first dose two weeks in a row because of problems with vaccine delivery.

“We are all frustrated. We know that we could do a lot more if we had more doses, ”said Simon on Friday. “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 ”.

Here is Garcetti’s statement in full:

LA County, which runs its own broader network of vaccination sites, said on Friday that for the second week in a row it would not offer any first vaccinations.

Mayor Eric Garcetti announced today that city vaccination sites will prioritize second doses this week. Local leaders continue to advocate for a greater supply of COVID-19 vaccines for the city and county of Los Angeles. However, until more shipments arrive, the first few doses will be severely limited.

“Our city has the tools, the infrastructure and the determination to vaccinate Angelenos quickly and safely – we simply need more doses,” said Mayor Garcetti. “Our density and demography have made our region an epicenter of this crisis in recent months and, with a reliable and consistent supply of vaccines, we can bring more vaccines into people’s arms, reduce rates of infection, hospitalization and death and defeat this pandemic from one once and for all. “

The city of Los Angeles is expected to receive just 54,000 doses of Moderna and 4,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines this week. In accordance with guidelines issued by the Centers for Disease Control and the County Department of Public Health, the city will prioritize individuals whose second doses are due in the coming days. If the city receives additional supplies this week, further appointments for the first dose will be available online at Coronavirus.LACity.org/VaxAppointment.

Appointments for this week’s second dose were automatically scheduled for Angelenos who received his first dose from January 18 to 23 at Hansen Dam, San Fernando Park, Crenshaw Christian Center, Lincoln Park and Dodger Stadium. Qualified patients must have received a text message and / or an email with the details of the second appointment.

Given the low level of general supplies, approximately 4,600 first doses will be available throughout the week at the newest location in town at Pierce College and mobile vaccination clinics serving our most vulnerable communities. Most of the city’s vaccination sites are scheduled to open this week, from Tuesday to Saturday; Hansen Dam will reopen on Wednesday. Mobile clinics are scheduled to operate Tuesday through Friday in municipal districts 8, 9 and 14.

Angelenos can visit Coronavirus.LACity.org/Vaccine to check the availability of the first dose, sign up for notifications and find out more about the second dose.

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