California faces high demand for COVID vaccine

California has opened up more mass COVID vaccination sites as it struggles with unprecedented demand.

TV Station KABC reported that at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, people were gathering at the gates long before vaccinations were due to begin, and sometimes queued for hours.

It said people were still receiving their shots, hours after the site was supposed to close.

California is just one of the states that has warned in the last few days that supplies of the coronavirus vaccine are running out.

Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii have issued similar warnings.

More than four million doses had been shipped to California and about 1.5 million had been administered as of Tuesday, according to state public health department figures.

Health officials have said the delay may be due in part to some doses not actually having arrived in the state yet.

California reported its second-highest number of COVID-19 deaths Wednesday but also a dip in hospitalizations below 20,000 for the first time since Dec. 27.

The total of 694 new deaths is second to the record 708 reported Jan. 8, according to the state Department of Public Health.