The move is being made for people who have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and need the second after 21 days, said Manuel Martinez of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.
County officials reported slow but steady progress in coronavirus vaccination efforts on Friday, but said less than 3% of the population had been fully vaccinated and that it would be difficult to schedule the first doses for now.
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At the seven large-scale vaccination sites operated by the county, a limited number of first doses will be administered on Monday, with the rest of the week’s appointments reserved only for people who need their second dose of the drug, according to the Dr. Paul Simon, director of sciences for the county health department. To arrange a meeting, you must also provide documentation.
The county is currently in Phase 1B of vaccine eligibility, which includes people aged 65 and over, with the next group consisting of educators, teachers, childcare workers, food and agriculture workers and first responders.
“So many people want to be vaccinated. This site here could easily accommodate 4,000 people being vaccinated per day, in fact 4,000 cars, and we simply don’t have vaccines. Today, we have only managed to clear 1,100 consultations,” said Barbara Ferrer, County Public Health Director from there.
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Simon said that while only seven vaccine locations in the county will administer only second doses this week, residents may experience problems elsewhere, as all providers deal with scarce vaccine supplies.
“Unfortunately, the biggest problem we continue to face in our ability to vaccinate is the scarcity of supply and the variability in the amount of vaccine we receive from week to week,” said Simon. “This has been a problem across the country. And it makes planning a challenge. ”
According to Simon, the latest figures indicate that more than 1.05 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the county to date, including just over 104,000 secondary doses. This means that 2.6% of the county’s population of people aged 16 and over has been fully vaccinated so far. About 11% of the population aged 16 or older received at least one dose.
The slow progress of the vaccination program has caused some residents to become creative in finding ways to manipulate the appointment system to gain access to vaccines.
Some people who are not yet qualified to receive the vaccine have now stayed in the vaccination sites with little chance of excess doses at the end of the day that must be administered to avoid waste. Ferrer said this week that there were problems with people who claim to be caregivers of disabled children and who came to vaccination sites with a generic xerox letter identifying them as such.
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Simon described another way that some people tried to skip the line to get vaccines. According to Simon, people who received emails from the county about scheduling an appointment for a second dose of the vaccine are sharing with friends the exclusive link included in the emails. These people “are then making an appointment for the first dose, although they are not eligible to be vaccinated at this time”.
“It is important for people to understand that these actions are taking access to vaccination from high-risk people who are eligible for the vaccine now,” said Simon. “When we identify these consultations, they are being canceled. I want the public to be aware that people who are not eligible and appear on one of our sites with one of these shared commitments will be rejected. ”
He said he had no figures on how many people tried to skip the line in this way, but “it was happening enough that we understood clearly”.
Simon said the county is trying to find a way to fix the computer system to prevent such appointments from being made.
Governor Gavin Newsom discussed the vaccine shortage issue at a press conference held in San Diego’s Petco Park on Monday.
“We are sober and aware of the scarcity of the number of vaccines available in the United States of America. However, we are not naive about our responsibility here in the state of California to move these vaccines from freezers to weapons people,” said the governor.
Newsom said the state is administering almost 200,000 doses of vaccines a day, which is double the number of just a few weeks ago. But Newsom said the state still needed more help.
“So we are making progress, we are improving the administration fee day after day, but we cannot do this at the state level without partners at the local level,” he said.
The City News Service contributed to this report.
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