Throwback: When LA Chose To Use Dodger Stadium For Mass Vaccination

Dodger stadium and the LA skyline

In January 2021, LA’s government revealed that the home stadium of the Los Angeles Dodgers would be among the mass coronavirus vaccination administration venues opening across the state.

Dodger Stadium was the biggest coronavirus disease testing venue in the nation, and 10,000 tests were administered daily there. However, it would be turned into a vaccine administration venue for people eligible for it in the January tier.

The Mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti stated that vaccinating 12,000 individuals daily was the expectation.

Garcetti described the arena as the ‘home base’ from the early phase of the epidemic with regards to LA’s testing infrastructure. As for Garcetti, it was an important part of LA’s attempt to monitor the coronavirus spread, preemptively act before outbreaks became well-known, and save human lives. He termed vaccines the ‘surest’ way to defeat the coronavirus and chart a path to recovery. Therefore, Los Angeles, the nation, and his whole team were using their best resources to vaccinate the city’s inhabitants as fast, efficiently and safely as possible.

As of January 11, 2021, Southern California’s alternative large-scale coronavirus vaccination venues included the Anaheim-based Disneyland Resort and San Diego’s Petco Park.

As of January 11, 2021, the vaccine distribution in the state was in the so-called ‘Phase 1A’. That stage prioritized healthcare employees in 3 tiers; all of them could make appointments for the vaccination at 75 Los Angeles County locations, including Dodger Stadium.

As of that Monday, Los Angeles County gave 180,174 coronavirus vaccine doses to healthcare employees, over 25,000 of which were the final doses.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health felt that it could vaccinate over 500,000 healthcare employees by January.

Following the completion of Phase 1A, Phase 1B vaccination would start in February 2021 for individuals aged 75 years or above, alongside employees from childcare, food and agriculture, and education sectors.

The Phase 1B Tier 2 would cover people from 65 to 74, and those in the critical manufacturing, logistics and transportation, plus industrial, residential, commercial and sheltering locations. People who are imprisoned or homeless would also be part of that tier.

Phase 1C vaccination may start in March 2021, focusing on people aged from 50 to 64 years first, and then 16 to 49-year-old people having underlying medical issues. It would cover workers in wastewater and water, chemical and other harmful materials, defense energy, information and communications technology, government operations, community-based functions that are deemed essential, and financial services.

The recently-proposed Phase 2 would comprise the remaining population aged from 16 to 49 years who lack high-risk health issues. That last vaccination stage is supposed to start in May or June.

In California, 2% of qualified healthcare employees refused or delayed their vaccinations. California’s Governor Gavin Newsom commented that the above-mentioned seemed to contradict a part of the new national data on the vaccinated people count. As per that new date, there was a bigger percentage of the individuals.

Newsom also stated that the shipment of 2,466,125 dosages to California was completed for 1 million people in the state by January third week.