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FEMA opened its first mass COVID-19 vaccination sites on Tuesday, relocating to Los Angeles and Oakland as part of a Biden administration effort to get arm shots faster and reach minority communities hard hit by the epidemic.
Snowy and frigid weather across much of the United States, meanwhile, forced the cancellation of some vaccination events and threatened to disrupt vaccine deliveries over the next few days. The Houston Public Health Agency lost power and had to scramble to deliver thousands of punches before they spoiled.
The developments came as the vaccination campaign intensified. The United States averages about 1.67 million doses per day, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, deaths have fallen sharply over the past six weeks and new cases have plummeted.
Nearly 39.7 million Americans, or about 12% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine, and 15 million have received both vaccines, the CDC said.
Deaths are on average around 2,400 per day, down more than 900 from their peak in mid-January. And the average number of new cases per day has fallen to around 85,000, the lowest for three and a half months. That’s down from the peak of almost a quarter of a million a day in early January. The overall death toll in the United States is nearly 490,000.
Early in the morning in Los Angeles, several dozen cars were already lined up with people sitting inside reading newspapers and passing the time, half an hour before the 9 a.m. mass vaccination site opened. countries with the help of Federal Emergency Management. Agency.
Troops in camouflage fatigues stood around the sprawling parking lot at California State University, Los Angeles, where around 40 white tents were erected and dozens of orange cones set up to guide traffic.
The site, set up in the heavily Latino-East region of Los Angeles as part of an effort to reach communities that have suffered disproportionately from the coronavirus, aims to vaccinate up to 6,000 people per day. Another such site opened at the Oakland Coliseum, near the black and Latino working-class neighborhoods.
Hard-hit California topped New York State for the nation’s highest death toll, at more than 47,000.
The Los Angeles vaccination site is “near a community that has been disproportionately affected by this pandemic,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said. “The effort here is to solve this problem straight out.”
The Biden administration intends to establish 100 federally assisted vaccination sites across the country in cooperation with state authorities.
Elsewhere in the country, the coronavirus has put the brakes on Mardi Gras in New Orleans considerably. Rue Bourbon in the French Quarter, where the loudest and most slobbering parties usually take place, has been blocked by police barricades and bars have been closed.
“It’s hard to wrap my head,” said New Orleans lawyer Dave Lanser, wearing a luminescent green cape and black mask with a curved beak, looking up and down at a rue Bourbon almost empty.
“I don’t think there is a way to do it safely this year,” he said. “So I support canceling parades, closing bars, all that sort of thing. It’s just kind of the reality.
Mardi Gras crowds last year were blamed for a serious COVID-19 outbreak in Louisiana.
Snow, ice and freezing cold have forced vaccinations to be canceled in places like Memphis, Tennessee and Missouri.
Harris County in Houston rushed to distribute more than 8,000 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine after a public health facility lost power early Monday and its back-up generator also broke, have the authorities said. The shots were distributed to three hospitals, Rice University and the county jail.
“It’s incredible. I’m very grateful, ”said Harry Golen, a 19-year-old sophomore who waited almost four hours with his friends, much of it in the freezing cold, and was among the last people to get the vaccines – who otherwise wouldn’t. I only reached students in March or April.
More than 400,000 additional vaccine doses expected in Texas won’t arrive until at least Wednesday, officials said.
The Biden administration said inclement weather is expected to disrupt shipments from a FedEx facility in Memphis and a UPS facility in Louisville, Kentucky. Both serve as vaccine shipping hubs for a number of states.
The administration is increasing the amount of vaccines sent to states to 13.5 million doses per week, a 57% increase from when Biden took office nearly a month ago, the press secretary said from the White House, Jen Psaki.
Psaki also said the administration doubled to 2 million doses per week the amount of vaccine sent to pharmacies across the United States as part of a program to improve access in neighborhoods.
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Associated Press editors Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Jim Salter in O’Fallon, Missouri, and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.
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