Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that the majority of Friday’s Covid-19 vaccinations on city premises will be postponed due to delays in the delivery of vaccines caused by severe winter storms across the country. This is the second Friday in a row that the city’s sites are being hampered by a lack of supply.
Three weeks ago, the city was given an average of about 13,000 doses per day.
About 12,500 patients will soon receive a notification by SMS, email or phone that their Friday appointment has been postponed. Once the city has confirmed the arrival of a new dose in the coming days, all patients who have missed their appointment will be prioritized and will receive a notification with details for their new automatically-rescheduled appointment.
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Los Angeles officials do not get three-week vaccine projections promised by President Joe Biden
The city expected to receive 58,000 doses this week, which was already significantly lower than 90,000 two weeks earlier.
Garcetti also announced Thursday that another 37,000 doses planned for next week have also been delayed.
According to an official statement, the province could have 500,000 appointment slots this week. However, there are only enough doses to dispense less than half of them; a little over 211,000 appointments.
The deadline reported yesterday that provincial officials have revealed that they will not receive a promised federal forecast on how much vaccine will come in the next three weeks. It was a promise President Joe Biden made on his second day in office.
In fact, as of Wednesday, the province’s top health official is not even visible on how many doses are coming next week.
‘I have no projections for what we get [in the] next 2-3 weeks out, ”Barbara Ferrer, director of public health in Los Angeles County, said in a call with reporters Wednesday. Not only that, Ferrer revealed that “we have delayed the numbers for next week.”
Since the peak of 90,000 doses two weeks ago, the city and county of Los Angeles have been plagued by shortages. Each prioritized second doses due to the fear that newly vaccinated residents could not receive a second dose in time. Garcetti had to shut down even the city’s biggest test venue at Dodger Stadium for two days this past weekend.
“Heavy weather across the country has disrupted travel and shipping nationwide, including the delivery of our vaccines,” Mayor Garcetti said. “Our city is ready to administer COVID-19 vaccines quickly, safely, and inexpensively – and once doses arrive in Los Angeles, we’ll get them in people’s arms immediately.”
“We are working closely with the city of Los Angeles to ensure that the spread of vaccinations is as smooth as possible,” said Dr. Sujal Mandavia, medical chief of Carbon Health, said. “Preference will be given to the appointment of second doses, and we intend to administer the second doses within the CDC recommended time frame of 42 days after the first dose.”
Country’s severe weather conditions have created two separate shipments: 26,000 doses, which would arrive earlier Tuesday, are currently in Kentucky; another 37,000, intended for next week’s appointments, are in Tennessee. Ground flights and icy roads prevented the delivery of these and other vaccines across the country.
Thursday’s announcement only affects the large – scale vaccination sites of the city of Los Angeles. Vaccinations of the City’s mobile clinics will continue as planned. The mayor and his team will continue to monitor the situation, and officials will determine the status of Saturday’s vaccination appointments as soon as possible.
Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state expects 3 million doses a week by March 1 and 4 million a week by April 30. Reality seems very, very far away.