Dodger Stadium COVID-19 vaccination site to reopen for second doses

Dodger Stadium and several other COVID-19 vaccination sites that were shuttered last week due to shortages are set to reopen Tuesday, though continuing supply problems mean the vast majority of shots administered will be second doses, Los Angeles officials said.

People vaccinated in mid-January were automatically slotted into appointments for most of the city’s anticipated weekly supply of 54,000 Moderna doses and 4,000 Pfizer doses, a prioritization that the city said complied with directives by county and federal health officials.

Just 4,600 doses will be set aside for initial immunizations, to be administered at Pierce College and at mobile clinics in hard-hit sections of South and East L.A.

Thousands more are expected to get their initial dose on the campus of Cal State L.A., where a site jointly run by the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency is to begin operations Tuesday.

“This is a direct federal allocation separate and apart from what is going to the county,” said Brian Ferguson, spokesman for the state Office of Emergency Services.

That site will have the capacity to vaccinate up to 6,000 people daily for at least eight weeks, part of a Biden administration effort to roll out 100 vaccination sites nationwide in the first 100 days of the president’s term. The Cal State site and a second one at the Oakland-Alameda Coliseum were selected, Gov. Gavin Newsom said last week, to focus on underserved areas devastated by the virus and to ensure that “communities that are often left behind are not left behind.”

Churches, social services agencies and other groups will be allocated group tickets for a portion of the vaccines, Ferguson said. The aim is for people with technology, language or other barriers to get appointments.

Meanwhile, teachers and other L.A. Unified School District employees will get their first designated vaccination site Wednesday. The operation at the Roybal Learning Center near downtown will be available to district staff age 65 and older and to those assigned to work at immunization sites.

About 6 million vaccine doses have been administered in California, with just under 1.5 million in L.A. County. The virus is on the decline nationally and across the state. Over the past week, the daily average of new cases in California fell by 51% versus two weeks ago.

At the peak of infections last month, the county was averaging 241 COVID-19 deaths per day. The county recorded 29 COVID-19 deaths Monday, though the number might have been affected by weekend and holiday reporting delays.

Even with the encouraging data, public health officials are pleading for more vaccine doses.

San Francisco’s Department of Public Health bemoaned the supply in a statement Sunday as “limited, inconsistent and unpredictable.” The city has closed the Moscone Center vaccination site for a week and limited a high-volume site at City College to second doses.

L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a statement Monday, “Our city has the tools, the infrastructure, and the determination to vaccinate Angelenos swiftly and safely — we simply need more doses.”

Times staff writers Howard Blume and Adam Elmahrek contributed to this report.