LA County lags behind other Southern California counties in opening vaccines to people 65 and older, but county health officials say their goal is to start offering the vaccine to that age group in In early February, a target they say depends on vaccine supply.
Currently, Los Angeles County only offers the vaccine to health care workers and residents and qualified nursing facility staff despite the state’s opening for residents age 65 and older. County officials say they do not yet have adequate doses locally to start opening vaccines to residents of that age group.
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Health officials say there are approximately 1.3 million people age 65 and older in the county, which has a population of 10 million. You can learn more about county vaccine distribution on their website.
There are reports that next week states will not be able to receive scheduled vaccine shipments from national storage because the federal dose reserve has already been exhausted. Gov. Gavin Newsom says California has already received 3 million doses and more were expected to come out of the federal government.
Newsom says California expected to receive hundreds of thousands of doses and is still trying to get responses from the Trump administration and they are working with the incoming Biden administration to get answers on when they could receive more vaccines.
As LA County approaches one million COVID-19 cases, the county announced Friday that five additional mass vaccination sites will open. Dodger Stadium opened Friday as a vaccination site.
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The new locations will start vaccinating on Tuesday and will be able to vaccinate 4,000 people a day at each site. The county expects to complete an additional 500,000 vaccines by the end of the month. The new super sites will be located at:
– Fairplex in Pomona
– The Forum at Inglewood
– Cal State University of Northridge
– LA County Office of Education in Downey
– Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia
Meanwhile, local leaders, such as Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez, are urging the creation of a waiting list for people 65 and older, as well as for those in the first place. line as essential workers to vaccinate more people faster.
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