People wait to have a free do-it-yourself COVID-19 test at a walk-in test site in the city of San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, California, the United States, Jan. 9, 2021. (Xinhua)

 California Governor Gavin Newsom declared Monday that the state would open mass vaccination sites in major cities to step up its coronavirus vaccination efforts this week.

Newsom said at daily online press conference that these mass vaccination sites included Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and Cal Expo in Sacramento, noting the state's goal was to vaccinate 1 million more people by the coming weekend.

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 people hospitalizations.

Los Angeles' Mayor Eric Garcetti issued a statement Sunday, saying local authority had 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 percent of the testing that takes place in Los Angeles County, the most populous county in the United States with over 10 million residents, according to county health officials.

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

As of Monday, Los Angeles county reported 12,617 new cases. That's down from 18,313 new infections reported last Friday and a near-record 19,719 daily cases on Thursday.

There were 137 new virus deaths reported Monday for a total of 12,387 to date in the county.