Mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that the test of Covid-19 at two of the city’s largest sites will end today. In collaboration with the country, the distribution of vaccines will begin by the end of the week.
A statement from the mayor’s office said local leaders had decided to abandon the testing at Dodger Stadium and Veterans Affairs Lot 15 at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Brentwood so that public health officials could immediately provide staff, equipment and other resources could focus on the spread of vaccinations.
“From an early stage in this pandemic, Dodger Stadium was the home base for our testing infrastructure, an important part of our effort to track the spread of COVID-19, to try to prevent breakthroughs and to save lives,” Garcetti said.
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“Vaccines are the surest way to defeat this virus and give a rate for recovery, so the city, the province and our entire team are doing our best to get the Angelenos vaccinated as quickly, safely and efficiently as possible. “
This shift in resources will “temporarily reduce the testing capacity in LA County, but it will more than triple the number of daily vaccinations available to be distributed to Angelenos,” according to the mayor’s statement. ‘The city is still committed to providing free testing to residents, with or without symptoms, on eight permanent sites and six mobile sites in LA
‘In the coming weeks, the number of tests offered will increase through existing venues, additional mobile teams and an extensive site at Pierce College in Woodland Hills. Anyone looking for a test can find more information at coronavirus.lacity.org/testing or can contact their healthcare provider. ”
But the decision comes as Los Angeles experiences what has long been feared: a Christmas boom in cases on top of a Thanksgiving boom on top of a fall boom.
LA’s record in expanding testing for its 10 million residents was uncomfortable at best. Offering more tests in the West Valley, while reducing it to the largest central terrain in the region, could also create barriers to serving some of LA’s hard-hit communities.
This amid the biggest upsurge of the pandemic.
“If you look at the last four days, we’ve seen a very increased number,” said LA Paul Health’s chief scientific officer, Dr. Paul Simon, admitted Friday. “It’s just a clear indication of what happened 2-4 weeks ago during the holidays.”
“This is very clearly the latest boom for the winter holidays and New Year,” Simon said. ‘And it’s likely to continue for the next week or two. We expect these numbers to remain high over the next few weeks. ”
Given Garcetti’s words about how vital testing is, one might wonder why increasing vaccinations in the short term is a zero-sum game with testing.
The province’s own test reporting shows an increase in demand for testing over the past ten days, and testing of separate partners Curative and CoreLA is mostly full at the end of the week.
The change comes when California Gov. Newsom Govin Newsom vowed to vaccinate 1 million people in ten days. This window closes on Sunday.
Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Hilda L. Solis applauded the decision.
“I want to thank Mayor Eric Garcetti, the entire city of Los Angeles and the Dodgers organization for their partnership in reaching us to this point,” Solis said.
‘Dodger Stadium served as a lifeline for so many Angelenos for eight months – free access to the Test. In this moment of darkness where cases, hospitalizations and deaths skyrocket, this bold move to offer both Covid-19 testing and vaccines in the heart of Los Angeles reflects the dual nature of this moment – it’s dark, but hopeful at the same time, ”she said. “Robust COVID-19 testing is key to getting out of this current and unprecedented boom, and the vaccine is at the heart of ending the pandemic once and for all.”
The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services has also announced that it will discontinue the use of Curative Covid-19 PCR tests this week following a federal warning about the possibility of false-negative results, but the tests will still be used in Los Angeles’ city for testing.
The province announced the change Sunday night, saying the decision was taken in response to a recent warning from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration about the possibility of false negative results.
Curative, a San Dimas diagnostics company, has been conducting a limited number of tests on pop-up-supported pop-up websites since mid-December. Between December 13 and January 2, a total of 24,241 curative tests were administered, representing approximately 10% of all COVID-19 tests on the province-supported trial sites during that time.
The curative tests will be replaced with Fulgent Genetics tests.
The FDA warning stressed that the curative test should be administered according to its permitted use – which limits it to use in people who show symptoms of COVID-19. Tests in Los Angeles are open to people, regardless of whether they show symptoms.
Mayor Eric Garcetti last week defended the use of the Curative tests on test sites in the city, saying the administration of asymptomatic people allowed the city to catch the virus in 92,000 people who would otherwise be unnoticed. He said the city does not intend to abandon the curative tests.
The Dodger Stadium website will soon be able to vaccinate up to 12,000 people a day when fully operational.
More than one million Angelenos have been tested for COVID-19 at Dodger Stadium since it opened in May 2020, and no existing test appointments are affected by this week’s operational changes. Vaccinations at the site are distributed in accordance with CDC, state and provincial guidance to eligible population.
City News Service contributed to this report.