Severe Weather Halts Delivery Of COVID Vaccines, City Of LA Cancels All Saturday Appointments
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – All Los Angeles city-run COVID-19 vaccine sites will be closed Friday and Saturday because of a major shipment delay caused by the snowstorms which have ravaged a large swath of the U.S.
Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Friday morning that the city's six permanent vaccine sites, including Dodger Stadium, would be closed for a second straight day.
Everyone with appointments will have them pushed to a later date.
"Severe weather continues to delay vaccine delivery to L.A., forcing us to also postpone Saturday appointments at city-run sites," Garcetti tweeted.
People will automatically get their appointments rescheduled to a later date once more vaccines come in.
Mobile vaccination clinics are not affected.
The city was also forced to close all its permanent sites Friday, postponing appointments for about 12,500 people.
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At least two shipments carrying about 63,000 doses heading to L.A. were held up: 26,000 doses that were supposed to arrive Tuesday were in Kentucky on Thursday, and 37,000 doses intended to be used for next week's appointments were in Tennessee.
As of Friday, appointments at L.A. County-run super sites have been affected by the weather.
Orange County closed their vaccination super site at Disneyland and a clinic at Santa Ana College through at least Monday because of similar weather-related supply issues.
The Southland as a whole has been dealing with a vaccine supply crisis for the past several weeks that became exacerbated by the snowstorms which have ravaged the nation.
The first federally-managed COVID-19 vaccination super site in Southern California officially opened Tuesday at Cal State L.A. It's unclear if it will also be affected by the weather delays.
