Mass COVID-19 vaccination site to be established in Central California, Newsom says
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new mass COVID-19 vaccination site would soon be established in Central California.
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new mass COVID-19 vaccination site would soon be established in Central California.
The site would be hosted in partnership with the federal government, which last week set up vaccination centers at Oakland-Alameda Coliseum and California State University, Los Angeles, as part of a plan to create 100 vaccination sites nationwide by the Biden administration's first 100 days in office.
RELATED: Newsom announces mass vaccination sites in Oakland, Los Angeles
Like the sites in Oakland and Los Angeles, the site would be allocated doses in addition to the current vaccines available to the area, the governor said.
Newsom said further details about the site would be released in the coming days.
"We've made this a top priority in our conversations with the Biden administration," he said. "We've made it a top priority in all of our conversations as it relates to the allocation of doses."
Governor Newsom didn't specify in what city the site would be located.
County, state, and federal representatives, however, have their hopes set on Fresno.
"Wherever that site, it's going to serve the entire Central Valley. It needs to be centrally located, from Kern to Stanislaus," said Fresno County Supervisor Nathan Magsig.
Congressman Jim Costa also said he is hopeful Fresno will be the location and said California OES and FEMA have indicated the Save Mart Center meets the criteria.
RELATED: Could Fresno's Save Mart Center become a COVID-19 mass vaccination site?
He said if picked, the site could mean several thousand additional vaccines.
"These FEMA sites are designed to provide 6,000 vaccines a day and they have mobile unit sites that have 5,000 vaccines a day each. That would be a total of 7,000 vaccines total until the full facility is ramped up," he said.
Costa said as the Biden administration aims to purchase more doses, the number of vaccines administered at the mass vaccination sites could increase over the next several months.
Many local leaders have called on President Joe Biden and Gov. Newsom to allocate more vaccines to the Central Valley.
While the state has touted that they would ensure equitable distribution of the vaccines, Fresno city council members said last week, Fresno County did not have an equitable deployment of vaccines compared to other counties, such as Los Angeles.
RELATED: Fresno City Council pleads with President Biden for more COVID-19 vaccine doses
The governor said that the first round of vaccines was distributed based on the state's "original framework for healthcare workers and on a per capita basis."
"There were parts of the state that have more abundant distribution because of their health care delivery system being more robust as it relates to total number of personnel. And so it followed suit that more vaccines went to more of those frontline workers," Newsom said on Monday.
RELATED: Central California COVID-19 vaccines: How to make an appointment, latest information by county
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