San Francisco, Jan 12 (IANS): California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state would open mass vaccination sites in major cities to step up its coronavirus vaccination efforts this week.

At daily online press conference on Monday, Newsom that these mass sites, including at the Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and Cal Expo in Sacramento, was aimed at vaccinating 1 million more people by the coming weekend, reports Xinhua news agency.

The move came as the state reported a record 1,163 deaths from Covid-19 over the last weekend and an additional 264 deaths on Monday.

Meanwhile, the state also saw nearly 40,000 new cases Monday and 22,633 hospitalizations.

Los Angeles' Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a statement on Sunday saying local authorities have decided to shift away from testing at Dodger Stadium and Jackie Robinson Stadium so that public health officials could immediately focus personnel, equipment and other resources on vaccination distribution.

These two facilities account for over 30 per cent of the testing that takes place in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the US with over 10 million residents.

This shift in resources would "temporarily reduce testing capacity in Los Angeles County, but it will more than triple the number of daily vaccines available to be dispersed", the Mayor's statement read.