Five of Los Angeles’ coronavirus vaccination sites, including one of the nation’s largest at Dodger Stadium, will be forced to temporarily close Friday and Saturday due to a lack of vaccine doses, the mayor said.
“We don’t have enough vaccines,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference on Wednesday. “We’re vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles and I’m very concerned. Our vaccine supply is uneven, it’s unpredictable, and too often, inequitable.”
While the city has been administering about 13,000 doses a day, only 16,000 new doses arrived this week.
“By tomorrow, the city will have exhausted its current supply of the Moderna vaccine for first dose appointments,” Garcetti said.
About 293,252 doses of the vaccine have been administered at the five city-operated vaccine distribution sites, and 98% of all doses the city has received have been distributed, according to the mayor.
Dodger Stadium became a Covid-19 vaccination site in January. Garcetti touted the site has the capacity to vaccinate 12,000 people each day, he said the night before the site opened.
This is not the first time the stadium has closed down. On the last Saturday of January, the Los Angeles Fire Department temporarily closed the entrance to the Dodger Stadium vaccination site for 55 minutes after a few dozen protesters carrying anti-vaccination signs turned up.
There is currently a 10%-12% no-show rate for vaccine appointments, Garcetti said, but the city’s sites overbook appointments so no doses are wasted. He said he hopes to reopen the city’s five mass vaccination sites by Tuesday or Wednesday.
The mayor’s announcement comes after Los Angeles County officials said Monday the county will only be offering appointments for the second dosage of the coronavirus vaccine at its county sites due to a shortage in supply.
To date, Los Angeles County has had a total of 1,155,309 confirmed coronavirus cases and 18,500 deaths, according to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.
