Pasadena Residents Should be Mindful of Where they Receive the COVID-19 Vaccination

Yes, Pasadena residents can get vaccinated at L.A. County locations, but proceed with caution.

Where one gets the first shot is probably where they should get the second inoculation.

According to Pasadena Health Director Dr. Ying-Ying Goh, the city won’t do a second shot if the first shot was administered somewhere other than Pasadena. 

Goh told the city’s Public Safety Committee on Tuesday that doing random second shots would force the city to use one of its doses, and, in the end, could leave Pasadena without enough doses to completely vaccinate local residents.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two shots that are to be administered weeks apart. 

The city has entered Phase 1B or Tier 1 of the vaccine rollout which includes people 75 and older. 

In Tier 1A, healthcare workers living and working in Pasadena, along with senior citizens living in the city’s long-term healthcare facilities, have been vaccinated.

Those people are still eligible to receive the vaccine under the terms of Phase 1A.

Goh said the city’s target is to vaccinate 145,000 residents, plus 13,000 healthcare workers.

COVID-19 vaccinations were officially available Wednesday to Los Angeles County residents 65 and older.

L.A. County opened five additional large-scale vaccine\sites Tuesday — at Six Flags Magic Mountain, Cal State Northridge, the Pomona Fairplex, the L.A. County Office of Education in Downey, and the Forum in Inglewood.

“Yes, Pasadena residents can use the county sites. However, the L.A. County Department of Public Health is encouraging residents of Long Beach and Pasadena to access their own city sites if possible,” said L.A. County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Although Long Beach and Pasadena have their own health departments, Altadena is under L.A. County’s jurisdiction when it comes to the virus. 

On Tuesday, City Manager Steve Mermell said the city was open to allowing the Rose Bowl or the Convention Center to be used as a mega vaccination center. 

The county’s online appointment system to schedule the shots was operational again following an hours-long outage that occurred just as people flocked online to snare limited Reservations.

Despite the Tuesday evening outage, thousands of people were still able to secure appointments for this week. The county’s website, vaccinatelacounty.com, had a notice posted Wednesday alerting people that remaining appointments at county vaccination sites are extremely limited.

“While we are continuing to work with our state partners to improve the functionality of the website, we ask for the public’s patience as we build capacity and supply,” the notice states. “We may add additional appointments later this week and additional slots may open if people cancel their appointments.”

The county has also expanded the capacity of its call-in reservation system, which is available from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at (833) 540-0473. Officials urged residents to use the call system only if they are unable to make appointments through the website.

As of midday Wednesday, the online system showed some available vaccination times this week at a handful of sites, but appointments were fully booked at the county’s newly opened vaccine site at the Pomona Fairplex. 

The site at the Forum in Inglewood showed appointments available on Thursday, while Cal State, Northridge had availability Wednesday and Thursday.

Appointments beyond this week remain murky, given uncertainty about the county’s supply of vaccine doses. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday the county was receiving 168,000 doses of vaccine this week, but there was no word on how many the county might receive beyond that.