Long Beach Convention Center becomes mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic

LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- The parking lot at the Long Beach Convention and Entertainment Center transformed into a mass COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

"Long Beach right now is probably the furthest-along big city in the state of California when it comes to our vaccination process," said Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia.

Over the weekend, the city began offering vaccines to residents 65 and older at the Long Beach Health Department headquarters. Now, food service and grocery store workers in Long Beach can get inoculated.

"Next week, we begin vaccinating our education sector," Garcia said. "That begins by vaccinating our teachers and staff at Long Beach Unified School District."

Garcia also mentioned that educators at Long Beach City College will receive the vaccine. Vaccination plans are still being worked out for workers at Cal State Long Beach.

City officials said they plan to inoculate around 1,500 people each day but the site has the capacity to vaccinate around 3,000.

"We will ramp up as vaccines becomes available," Garcia said.

The mayor said that Long Beach hopes to partner with Los Angeles County to be able to vaccinate residents in nearby cities such as Paramount, Lakewood and Signal Hill.

"We have, I think, the organization structure to get it done. We just need the OK from L.A. County and the additional vaccines from them," Garcia said.

Long Beach also launched Vax LB, an online portal where residents can get notified when it is their turn to be vaccinated.

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