Dodger Stadium and 4 other Covid vaccination sites to temporarily close in Los Angeles due to lack of supply

'We're vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here' says mayor Eric Garcetti

Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti has announced that several of the city’s Covid-19 vaccine sites will temporarily close due to a lack of supplies.

Mr Garcetti said at a press conference on Wednesday evening that five of Los Angeles’ city-run coronavirus vaccination sites, including Dodger Stadium, will shut on Friday and will not reopen until next week at the earliest.

“We're vaccinating people faster than new vials are arriving here in Los Angeles,” the mayor told reporters on Wednesday.

“And I'm very concerned right now. I'm concerned as your mayor that our vaccine supply is uneven, it's unpredictable and, too often, inequitable,” Mr Garcetti added.

He revealed that Los Angeles will have exhausted its supply of the Moderna vaccine for first doses by the end of Thursday, as it only received 16,000 extra doses this week.

“We won't have those vaccines because the supply is not there,” Mr Garcetti said during the press conference.

“As soon as we receive more supply, and I'd love a call tonight or tomorrow from some source at the state or national level saying we found some more, but most likely, hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday, we will start the business up again,” he added. 

Mr Garcetti revealed that by Wednesday evening, the vaccination sites had administered 98 per cent of the doses that Los Angeles has received, averaging around 13,051 a day. He added that 293,252 doses have already been administered to residents of the city.

The announcement came a few days after the sites announced that they would only be administering second doses this week, due to the limited supplies.

Several vaccination sites across the US have had to cancel appointments to administer first doses to residents over the last month, as the country has struggled with a shortage of vaccines.

However, President Joe Biden has called any shortages “unacceptable,” and said that he expects the US to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.

Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson applied for an emergency use authorisation for its one-dose vaccine this week, as it hopes to become the third treatment available for use in the US.

The company’s clinical trial data is scheduled to be examined by federal regulators on 26 February, ahead of a possible authorisation for use across the country.

Since the start of the pandemic, Los Angeles County has recorded more than 1.16 million coronavirus cases and at least 18,500 deaths, while California has seen 3.45 million positive Covid-19 tests and 45,436 fatalities.

According to Johns Hopkins University, there are now more than 27.2 million people who have tested positive for the coronavirus in the US. The death toll has reached 471,567.