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Amid widespread confusion about when and how seniors can get the coronavirus vaccine, two Los Angeles County supervisors are urging people 65 and over to be immunized immediately.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom urged all counties to start vaccinating residents 65 years of age and older so that we can protect our residents most vulnerable to this virus ”. Supervisor Janice Hahn said on Twitter Monday. “LA County must follow the state’s lead without further delay.”
Although the state announced last week that it was opening up vaccination to the elderly, Los Angeles County has not received enough doses to expand the rollout of an already slow vaccine. The county continues to limit vaccinations to healthcare workers, first responders, residents, and trained nursing facility staff.
Although this process must continue, Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a tweet on Monday, the county must also “be flexible and immediately begin the process of vaccinating those 65 and over.”
Officials have been inundated with calls from older residents who want the vaccine. But the county said it would not start the next round of vaccination until healthcare workers received their vaccines – likely not before early February. Authorities estimated last week that around 450,000 healthcare workers still need to be vaccinated.
“People are afraid,” Barger said recently. “That’s really what I get from people calling. People are scared.
By this week, according to county estimates, more than 40,000 doses per day will be delivered at vaccination sites that include Dodger Stadium, five county-run mega-sites – including Six Flags Magic Mountain and the Pomona Fairplex. – and a handful of smaller clinics in town.
County health officials said they expected all eligible healthcare workers to receive their first dose within the next two weeks. Those eligible for the next phase include those 65 and over, as well as those working in education, childcare, emergency services, or food and agriculture.
Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said Monday that even a single dose of the two-dose vaccination schedule appears to have lowered infection rates among staff members. Since vaccinations began in late December, positive test results have fallen from 18% to less than 6%, fire officials said in a press release.
“As the county continues to increase, new cases among department staff have started to drop precipitously, as has our test positivity rate,” said Clayton Kazan, medical director of the county fire department. “This is the first time in the entire pandemic that our data diverges from that of the county.”
An important many firefighters have still not shown up for vaccination. About 75% had their first shots, according to the press release. A similar trend was seen in the Los Angeles City Fire Department, with 40% refusal of the vaccine, despite the deaths of two firefighters and nearly a quarter of the force having tested positive.
County firefighters are expected to start receiving their second dose of the vaccine this week.
In other parts of Southern California, older people are already starting to get vaccinated. Orange County has opened vaccination to residents 65 and older, and Long Beach, which has its own public health department, moved to the next phase of vaccination on Friday, Mayor Robert Garcia and other employees critics of the city receiving the vaccine.
Long Beach police officers and people 65 and over are now eligible for the vaccine. The city has expanded its deployment after immunizing around 15,000 healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities, Garcia said in a press release.
Long Beach will also begin opening clinics to immunize grocery store workers this week, with educators eligible the following week.
In Pasadena, which also has a separate LA County Department of Health, officials on Saturday offered enrollments to residents aged 75 and older who had completed a form expressing interest in being vaccinated. Reservations filled within two hours for the roughly 800 doses that will be available Tuesday and another 1,000 to be administered Thursday at Victory Park, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.
City officials said they were told on Saturday they would receive enough doses this week to finish off the rest of their priority medical workers and start vaccinating the elderly. Additional help from local hospitals and pharmacies in the area, which have received their own vaccine shipments, has relieved some of the pressure, Derderian said.
Officials have also reached out to elderly care facilities and elderly residents who may not be familiar with the online registration process. They are working on creating a larger mass vaccination site, possibly at the Rose Bowl, and hope to expand the age range to people 65 and over as soon as possible.
“It all depends on how much vaccine we get from the state,” Derderian said. “We have the infrastructure to support the deployment. We just need the vaccine.
Back in Los Angeles, a short walk from Dodger Stadium, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced at a virtual press conference Monday morning that the city was stepping up efforts with the American Red Cross to deliver thousands of COVID security kits. -19 – drawstring bags filled with hand sanitizer, face masks, COVID-19 tests, and safety tips – to families in East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and other communities who have been particularly affected affected by the pandemic.
“We know the most vulnerable parts of Los Angeles right now are the places where we have dense lives, multigenerational lives, high poverty, and essential workers,” he said. “This is where these epidemics are happening.”
A helicopter roars above him, interrupting his remarks. A siren moans in the distance. Garcetti concluded by acknowledging Martin Luther King Jr.’s vacation and the need to always bring racial justice to America, especially as the nation battles a disease that has disgusted and disproportionately killed black and Latino residents. .
“Nothing like this pandemic,” he said, “has shown how urgent this is still.”
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