Los Angeles County will again next week retain the majority of its available Covid-19 vaccinations to provide second-dose for those ready to receive it, with large-scale works conducted by the province administering only second-dose. health officials said Friday.
“Next week, the majority of appointments will be at our vaccination sites for second doses,” said Dr. Paul Simon, chief scientific officer of the public health department, said. “We will only provide second doses on our Mega-POD sites.” This is after we gave only second shots this week, which made the country have to cancel the first dose appointments for two weeks in a row due to problems with the vaccine supply.
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The Mega-PODs run by the county are on the Pomona Fairplex, Magic Mountain, the Forum, the County Office of Education in Downey and the state of North Calridge.
He said the first doses would be available elsewhere, mainly at health centers, pharmacies “and other providers serving the areas hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The province received about 200,000 doses each week, although the actual amount of game varied, making advance planning for reservations difficult. Stocks were so limited this week that the City of Los Angeles was forced to close Dodger Stadium’s vaccination room and four other city locations through the weekend because supplies were depleted Thursday afternoon. It is unclear how the country’s ongoing shortfall will affect the Dodger Stadium site next week.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday that the vaccine’s vaccine had run out because the city’s grant fell more than 80 percent week-on-week.
‘This week we only received 16,000 new doses. “It’s about the number of new doses we give every day,” he said. “It’s 90,000 lower than last week. This is unacceptable. ”
‘In an information session this morning from our countrymen,’ the mayor said on Wednesday, ‘we learned that other cities with smaller populations are receiving more doses than our entire country with a larger population. If we look at places with small cases, we see that 50% more doses go to other cities. I do not want to take a single dose from them, but it is only reasonable that Los Angeles should have a steady supply to meet our need at the moment. ‘
According to The Fresno Bee, the Fresno County grant doubled to 19,000 doses this week. Last week, the province received 8,000.
Who is then responsible for the awards?
The U.S. government decides how many doses each state receives each week. The state divides the doses among provinces and major health systems. The province will then issue an award to the city.
CA uses a formula that aims to estimate how many people in an area are eligible to take assignments. But the decline experienced in LA this week – especially compared to Fresno – does not seem fair, as LA is a 3 million city.
“We share their frustration,” said Dr. Paul Simon, LA County, said. “We are all frustrated. We know we could have done a lot more if we had had more doses. For example, we now receive approximately 200,000 doses each week, and since we have researched all of our providers, we are confident that we can administer up to 600,000 doses per week. So we have a much, much greater capacity if we can get the available vaccine. ”
Garcetti is being reminded this week that the state’s pressure to expand vaccination sites is rapidly drying up a pool of vaccines that are already in short supply.
More specifically, asked if the increasing prevalence of vaccination sites may have contributed to the decline in supply that Garcetti noted: ‘It’s a bit of Hunger Games out there. We do a kind of ‘all the above approach’. I think part of this is that we went to so many places without the offer matching it, that you saw some of the core sites … like ours and the mega sites in the country, do not have that much offer. ‘
Indeed, Thursday plagued the long vaccination at the Forum in Inglewood because people showed up without appointments. One shooter reported a three-hour delay.
The provincial public health department told City News Service that the delays were “due to more than 1,000 individuals arriving at the scene for a second dose but having no appointment.”
The province did not turn away individuals eligible for a second dose. This has increased the registration time for almost half of the people on the site. According to the province, extra staff were sent to help manage the delays.
Dr Simon and the health officer of the province, dr. Muntu Davis, both said the increase in supplies will be critical as more people qualify for the shots. He noted that the state on Friday planned to extend the election next month for all people aged 16 and older medical conditions or disabilities that make them very susceptible to death or serious illness due to Covid.
Davis realized the general downward trend in everyday cases, but stressed that although the numbers are getting better, they are still high, and ‘the risk of someone running into COVID-19 who may not know it is still very high.’
Regarding vaccines, Simon said the latest figures show that 1 345 949 doses have been administered in the country, of which 1 047 074 are first doses. A total of 13.5% of the country’s population aged 16 and over received at least one dose, and 3.8% of the population were fully vaccinated.
City News Service contributed to this report.