Los Angeles is temporarily closing five mass vaccination sites, including Dodger Stadium, for lack of supply as the state faces continuing criticism over a vaccine rollout a lawmaker called “nothing short of chaotic."
Mayor Eric Garcetti said Wednesday the city will exhaust its supply of Moderna first doses — two are required for full immunization — by Thursday, forcing it to close drive-thru and walk-up vaccination sites on Friday and Saturday.
The sites, which can handle thousands of shots daily, may not reopen until the city gets more supplies. They may possibly come next Tuesday or Wednesday although smaller mobile vaccination clinics will continue their work, Garcetti said.
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— MayorOfLA (@MayorOfLA) February 11, 2021
Los Angeles, which has 10 million residents, only received 16,000 new doses this week while it uses about 13,000 doses in a typical day, Garcetti said.
“This is not where I want to be,” Garcetti said. “It’s not where we deserve to be.”
“I’m hoping that there’s some federal official out there, some state official who tonight got the good news that some more doses are on their way someplace," he said.
The announcement came as some counties complained that California's current system of parceling out vaccines undercounts the number of shots they've administered, potentially crimping efforts to stem the coronavirus outbreak by immunizing the majority of the state's 40 million residents.
—Kathleen Ronayne, Associated Press