SAN DIEGO — Upping the vaccination score in California, from the Oakland Alameda Coliseum, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a game-changing plan to open two large federal vaccination sites in Los Angeles and Oakland.
"What we hope is a minimum of 6,000 doses a day and hoping to build from that moving forward. The whole idea is to speed up the throughput and the efficiency,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The federal sites are a first of its kind with each site serving as the pilot project for the Biden Administration, which hopes to open 100 vaccination sites in President Biden's first 100 days.
"Oakland and Los Angeles cannot be more proud to host these first pilots from the federal government to accelerate the distribution of life-saving vaccine,” said Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf.
State officials say the two federal locations selected are in some of the most diverse and socioeconomically challenged communities in the country, which have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
“The reason this site was chosen was the framework of making sure that communities that are often left behind are not left behind but are prioritized,” Newsom said.
So now there will be more sites but not more vaccine. California gets a limited supply this week of 1,060,000 doses of the vaccine. How will these large vaccinate sites affect the already dwindling supply?
"This site is not going to in any way impact the existing vaccine resources,” Schaaf said.
But what about San Diego getting a federal vaccination site?
“The challenge for San Diego County with what they're doing in Oakland and in LA is that we have the opposite problem that other areas have,” said San Diego County Supervisors Chair Nathan Fletcher.
San Diego County has 19 vaccine sites, which can altogether administer 20,000 doses a day.
"We built out far more infrastructure and a workforce to give vaccines than we have vaccines available, I guess technically, we would be eligible for that, but I don't see the federal government placing one of those sites here,” Fletcher said.
The two new federal vaccination sites are set open to eligible members of the public on February 16.