Los Angeles plans to convert its largest coronavirus testing site at Dodger Stadium into a mass vaccination center this week, city and county officials announced Sunday night.
Officials are aiming to vaccinate up to 12,000 people a day once the site is fully operational, according to a news release from Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office.
More than 1 million coronavirus tests had been administered since May at Dodger Stadium, which is also the largest testing location in the country, processing thousands of residents a day.
Testing operations at Dodger Stadium will end Monday, the mayor’s office said.
City and county officials will also end testing operations at the Veterans Affairs Lot 15 site near Jackie Robinson Stadium “so public health officials can immediately focus personnel, equipment, and other resources on vaccination distribution,” the news release said.
“Vaccines are the surest route to defeating this virus and charting a course to recovery, so the city, county, and our entire team are putting our best resources on the field to get Angelenos vaccinated as quickly, safely, and efficiently as possible,” Garcetti said in the release.
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom set an ambitious target of vaccinating an additional 1 million people against COVID-19 over the next nine days, after admitting that the state’s effort to inoculate its residents has been “not good enough.”
While the state has received more than 2 million orders of the coronavirus vaccine, less than a third had been administered to those who are eligible to receive a dose of the lifesaving supply as of Friday.
As of Thursday, only a little more than a third of the COVID-19 vaccines received by L.A. County had been administered, according to county public health data.
In the past week alone, about 100,000 people in L.A. County tested positive for the virus. And in just four days, more than 1,000 residents lost their lives to the virus.
L.A. County reported 166 new COVID-19 deaths and another 14,482 coronavirus cases Sunday, bringing the countywide total to 920,177 infections and 12,250 deaths.
