LA County Supervisor Orders Public Health To Open COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments To Older Residents – CBS Los Angeles

by



[ad_1]

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Los Angeles County Supervisory Board Chairman Hilda L. Solis on Monday signed an executive order directing the LA County Department of Public Health to make appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine available to residents of 65 years and over from Thursday.

“Over the past few weeks, Los Angeles County has administered the vaccine to frontline healthcare workers, so they can stay safe while doing the important work of saving lives, residents and staff in skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. facilities, ”Solis said in an emailed statement. “Deploying the COVID-19 vaccine has been a colossal undertaking, especially during an unprecedented outbreak where cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to skyrocket.

“However, if we are to ever get out of this gloomy winter, it is essential that we make progress on vaccinating people 65 and over as soon as possible – in accordance with Governor Gavin Newsom’s recommendations,” the statement continued.

RELATED: LA County Reports 9,927 New COVID-19 Cases, 88 Deaths

Solis said she is giving the health department until Thursday to begin opening appointments for those 65 and over until Thursday so they can “adequately prepare for deployment.”

But hours earlier, Dr Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, the county’s chief medical officer, said the county was not yet at the point of moving forward with vaccinating the elderly.

“If we see by the end of the week that the rate of increase in healthcare workers is declining, which suggests that we need to move on to what is called phase 1B, especially level 1 for the elderly , we’ll make that call fairly quickly. ,” he said.

The move comes as researchers at Cedars-Sinai have announced that a new local strain, referred to as Cal.20C, may contribute to the outbreak and has been found in more than a third of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles.

Gunzenhauser said the Los Angeles County Public Health Department is monitoring this, along with a number of other mutations – including one first detected in the UK.

“We’re worried that if it does surface, you know, and it causes a lot of transmission, we might see a big wave in February or March,” he said.

Public Health has yet to release a statement regarding the decree, which can be viewed online, but previously said it was delaying the rollout for older residents, citing vaccine shortages as it worked to immunize health and frontline workers first.

The department will host a virtual town hall on the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.



[ad_2]

Source link