FEMA Moving Forward With Plans To Pull Out Of Oakland Mass Vaccination Site
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- FEMA Acting Administrator Robert Fenton has rejected a request from California health officials to extend federal COVID-19 vaccine shipments to mass vaccination sites in Oakland and Los Angeles beyond the April 11 cutoff date.
Ever since the sites were opened in February, the thousands of doses administrated have been independent of the vaccine allocations to Alameda County and California state health departments.
In response to a request from Cal-OES, Fenton said: "FEMA has delivered all the promised vaccine to the state of California, plus some additional doses of Pfizer. And with the approval of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, we were able to add product to vaccinate tens of thousands of additional people."
"On Sunday, Apr. 11, the eight-week CVC mission will be completed. But that does not mean vaccinations will end. Cal OES is working with local health officials on a transition plan to transfer management of the CVCs to local organizations."
Fenton said when the two state-federal sites were opened, California was receiving roughly 1.5 million vaccine doses a week.
Each site was set up to vaccinate 6,000 people per day but they have been administering up to 7,500 shots per day, according to the state Office of Emergency Services. Since the sites are federally managed, those shots are separate from California's overall weekly allocation, which is now about 1.8 million shots per week.
"Moving forward, California is scheduled to receive at least 2 million doses a week for the next three weeks," Fenton said. "Thursday, Apr. 1, the state indicated it anticipates receiving as many as 3 million doses a week in late-April. Additionally, pharmacies are scheduled to get an increase of 500,000 vaccines per week."
The mass sites were expected to remain open as a part of a state and local health department agreement. Fenton said federal funding for the two sites would continue until Oct. 30.
"FEMA is prepared to leave all locally hired employees in place if the facilities are transferred," he said. "We are also prepared to leave the three mobile units associated with each CVC."
