CSUN To Open Tuesday As Mass Vaccine Site
NORTHRIDGE, CA — Starting Tuesday, Cal State Northridge will serve as one of Los Angeles County's six mass vaccine sites.
Vaccinations will take place on two of the campus's large parking lots, where approximately 4,000 people a day are expected to be vaccinated. Once fully operational, the site is expected to administer vaccines to 12,000 people a day.
Though Gov. Newsom announced Wednesday that all California residents 65 and older, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said that Los Angeles will limit vaccines to frontline healthcare workers and nursing home staff and residents until the county has enough vaccines to expand distribution. County officials hope these limitations will lift by early February, when everyone 65 and older and frontline essential workers can receive vaccines.
Currently, vaccinations are by appointment only, and eligible recipients can make appointments on the county website.
In order to receive a vaccine at appointment time, healthcare workers must provide either a healthcare worker badge with a photo, a professional license with photo identification, a signed letter from an employer with a photo identification, or a pay stub from a healthcare provider with a name and photo ID, according to the county website.
Public health officials announced last week that Dodger Stadium would be converted from a testing center into the first functional mass vaccination site. On Friday, the stadium became the county's first operating mass vaccination site and the one of the country's largest vaccine centers. Approximately 2,000 healthcare workers started lining up to get vaccinated, and a grand opening ceremony was attended by Mayor Garcetti and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
"This is the proverbial Ark of our time, one among other sites to help end the global suffering," L.A. Deputy Mayor Jeff Gorell wrote in a tweet about the opening day.
Other mass sites, which public health officials hope will vaccinate 500,000 healthcare workers by the end of January, include:
Pomona Fairplex, 1101 W. McKinley Ave.
The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood
Los Angeles County Office of Education, 12830 Columbia Way, Downey
Six Flags Magic Mountain, 26101 Magic Mountain Parkway, Valencia
Additionally, 75 other vaccination sites the county have been previously established across the region to administer doses to health care workers.
CSUN will have nothing to do with the administration of the vaccine, but it is helping in ways other than providing space. Approximately 55 students at the university's nursing school have volunteered to help facilitate shots to hundreds of health care workers at Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital in Santa Clarita, Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar, and Valley Presbyterian Hospital in Van Nuys. Some administered the vaccines, while others helped with sterilizing needles, and putting bandages on injection sites.
"It's humbling and an honor to be one piece of that huge puzzle to make it all work," Nina Amirian, who is entering her last semester in the Accelerated BS in Nursing, said in a CSUN Today article.
“My thanks to Cal State Northridge for working with the County to make its campus available to administer urgently needed vaccines,” Supervisor Sheila Kuehl said in a written statement. “The CSUN site, along with other Mega Points of Distribution sites, will dramatically increase the number of County residents who can be vaccinated each day.”
Related coverage:
Dodger Stadium Reopens As Nation's Largest Vaccination Center
LA County Plans To Add 5 More Vaccination Sites By Next Week
Dodger Stadium Will Be A Vaccination Site By Friday | Los Angeles, CA Patch
This article originally appeared on the Northridge-Chatsworth Patch
