Harris: Coliseum site will stay open
Visiting VP promises federal help for vital vaccination center
Vice President Kamala Harris said the federal government plans to keep a mass vaccination site at the Oakland Coliseum open beyond its scheduled closure Sunday, after local officials expressed concern about the planned shutdown just as demand for inoculations is about to explode.
“We are going to keep the site open,” Harris told The Chronicle on Monday during her first trip to Oakland since she became vice president. “We are extending it.”
However, there was no immediate clarity on how it would run, given that the Federal Emergency Management Agency has said it will stop providing vaccine doses after this week. FEMA, which is running the operation with California’s Office of Emergency Services, has offered its support to keep the site open and is in discussions with the state about how to proceed, according to a letter that the federal agency’s acting administrator sent to the state last week.
Sen. Alex Padilla, visiting the Coliseum vaccination site on Monday, said federal, state and local governments will “continue to work together to extend the life of the facility.”
Asked whether the site would close Sunday, the California Democrat said “the goal” was to avoid that, but he didn’t provide concrete plans on who would run it. As for where the vaccine doses would come from, Padilla said, “We’re still working out those details.”
“We don’t have a final plan or commitment,” he added, but “we still have several days before Sunday arrives.”
FEMA did not respond to requests for comment on Harris’ promise. The agency had previously said the eightweek program meant to target hardhit communities would end Sunday and that it could not keep giving vaccine doses to the Coliseum operation or a second mass vaccination site at California State University Los Angeles.
Last week, the Alameda County Board of Supervisors and Colleen Chawla, director of Alameda County’s Health Care Services Agency, each sent letters to acting FEMA Administrator Robert Fenton asking the agency to extend the program.
The Coliseum site administers 42,000 shots a week, and local officials are concerned
about the effects of closing it just as vaccine demand is increasing. Demand is expected to skyrocket on April 15 when the state opens immunizations to anyone who wants them.
A FEMA spokesperson said last week that the closure was
appropriate because the state should be getting a huge boost in vaccine supply soon. But local officials say they can’t count on that increase.
Mark Ghilarducci, director of the California Office of Emergency Services, asked Fenton if the federal govern
ment could continue supplying both the Oakland and Los Angeles vaccination sites with their weekly doses if local authorities end up taking them over. Days later, Gov. Gavin Newsom said federal and local authorities had worked out a deal to keep the Cal State Los
Angeles site open.
Alameda County Supervisor Wilma Chan said the county will not be able to take over the Oakland site by Sunday and that the operation will have to close without continued federal help. “We need them here because it’s not feasible to replace these contracts and staffing on short notice,” she said.
Chan added that “there’s no way that we can take from our existing vaccine supply to make up for all the vaccines that are given here. So we’re very hopeful that with (Padilla’s) support, we’ll be able to work out a transition plan.”
Harris was in Oakland on Monday to tout the Biden administration’s $2 trillion infrastructure plan and also spent time bucking up Newsom, as he battles a possible recall campaign against him.
Harris said she and President Biden “will be supportive — as much as we possibly can” for Newsom.
“We are unambiguous in our support for Gov. Newsom,” Harris told The Chronicle.