Mass vaccination site at Dodger Stadium to shut down by May

Los Angeles’s mass coronavirus vaccination site at Dodgers Stadium will shut down by the end of May as the city adds more appointment-free options, Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) announced Friday. 

Garcetti said in a press release that in addition to expanded options for city residents to get the vaccine, more doses will be distributed to walk-up centers and mobile clinics. 

The mayor said the plans to close the stadium site are part of an initiative to focus on community-based options. 

More than 420,000 doses have been administered so far from the Dodgers’ home field.  

“Access and equity remain our North Stars in the campaign to protect public health and get every Angeleno vaccinated — and the Dodgers have been extraordinary partners in helping us save lives,” Garcetti said in a statement Friday. “Dodger Stadium set the standard for sports franchises and community institutions playing a starring role in our COVID-19 response for the country.” 

The mayor’s office said Friday that in addition to vaccinations, Dodgers Stadium has served as an essential administrator for COVID-19 tests, and in November, it was a polling place for nearly 6,000 local residents who cast their ballots in the general election. 

As of Friday, more than one million people had been tested for COVID-19 at Dodgers Stadium. 

Dodgers President and CEO Stan Kasten said the baseball franchise has been “extraordinarily proud to have played a role in Los Angeles’ response to COVID-19, hosting one of the largest testing and vaccination sites in the country, and to have served as a Vote Center, which allowed thousands of Angelenos to vote safely outdoors.” 

“From day one, we told the Mayor, we’re here to help in any way we can, and that offer will continue to stand long after the last vaccine dose has been administered in our parking lot,” Kasten added in his statement. 

According to data from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, nearly 50 percent of the city’s residents 16 and older have received at least one dose of one of the coronavirus vaccines, with about 30 percent fully vaccinated. 

Garcetti’s office in Friday’s press release said that the number of vaccine appointments offered by the city will not change with the move away from the mass vaccination site. Instead, the city will increase the supply of doses at several locations across the city, including at USC and through Mobile Outreach for Vaccine Equity, or MOVE, clinics.

Los Angeles residents can also get vaccinated without an appointment at Pierce College and Lincoln Park on Friday and Saturday, and starting next week, at multiple other locations and mobile clinics across the city.