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Some teachers, food workers and first responders in Los Angeles County could start receiving COVID-19 vaccines in two to three weeks – a major step as the populated region works to speed up the vaccination rollout.
However, with Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine supplies set to remain tight in the coming weeks, and with the majority of LA County seniors still waiting to receive their vaccines, officials have warned that it will take time for a large number of educators, child care workers, food and agriculture workers, emergency services and law enforcement officers to receive their vaccines.
Details of how to expand vaccine eligibility to these groups are still being worked out, for example asking schools and districts to offer their own immunization clinics.
“With a very limited vaccine supply and uncertainty over the timing of increased production, a realistic and carefully crafted plan to expand immunization availability to these additional sectors is being developed,” said LA County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer Wednesday. “We plan to start vaccinating workers in these sectors within two to three weeks.”
More than 1.3 million Angelenos who work in these areas could be vaccinated. They include approximately 668,000 teachers, educators and educators; at least 548,000 food and agricultural workers, including grocery store workers; and around 155,000 law enforcement, court and dispatch office workers.
About 2.2 million people in LA County who work in the healthcare industry, live in long-term care facilities, or are 65 and over are already eligible.
But only a fraction of those eligible received at least one injection. Ferrer said about 80% of elderly Angelenos had not yet received a single dose and that the two vaccines required two injections, taken weeks apart.
Of the approximately 4.4 million doses that LA County would need to immunize all currently eligible people, the county has only received 1.28 million doses, of which 1.05 million were administered last week.
Ferrer said it was time to expand eligibility, despite fears opening more groups to the queue would make it harder for seniors to get appointments.
“We need to start with some of our essential workers. It will be really difficult to wait weeks, weeks and weeks before you complete an entire sector before moving on, ”she said.
Unfortunately, LA County’s vaccine supply is expected to be limited for a number of weeks, with officials only expecting 200,000 doses per week, split between the first and second doses. Officials, however, expressed hope that the vaccine shortage will ease in the coming months, with the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to be available in March and two more vaccines on the horizon.
“So for now, it will take a while for us to reach everyone. And in these times of vaccine shortages, we have to ask everyone to wait your turn, ”Ferrer said.
Debate over when to add more people to the vaccine lineup has been happening across the state.
Some officials have warned that opening the spotlight immediately to teachers, food workers or other first responders would take away from limited appointments to those most likely to die from the disease.
Orange County will continue to focus on people aged 65 and over over the next two weeks, Dr Clayton Chau, director of the Health Care Agency and county health official, said on Tuesday. Other groups already eligible for the vaccine are healthcare workers, residents of long-term care facilities, and law enforcement workers who work in areas with high COVID-19 rates, such as Anaheim and Santa Ana.
“Add more people [to those eligible to get the vaccine] will make older people less likely to get vaccinated, ”Chau told the county supervisory board on Tuesday. “And I just want to remind people that they are the most vulnerable population.”
More than 70% of people who have died from COVID-19 in California are 65 years of age or older.
Orange County has the second largest senior population in California, with more than 500,000 of them, behind Los Angeles County, Chau said. It is estimated that only a quarter of the elderly in Orange County have received the vaccine, Chau said.
Chau expressed particular concern about the lack of vaccines given to older people living in poor neighborhoods, particularly in Santa Ana, Anaheim, and Garden Grove, who are heavily Latin American and whose residents are more likely to die from the disease. COVID-19 than people living elsewhere.
Among the elderly who have been vaccinated and whose information is recorded in Othena, a vaccine scheduling system used by senior residents of Orange County, Latin American and black residents are receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at rates less than their percentage of the population.
“Obviously, we need to focus our efforts on the Black and Hispanic / Latinx community… and that’s the plan that we’re moving forward – the next two weeks – to make sure we reach those communities,” Chau said.
Other areas in Southern California that have already opened views to these groups include Riverside County and Long Beach, which operates its own public health agency separate from LA County.
San Bernardino County has opened immunization appointments for law enforcement and emergency officials and teachers.
But across California, getting dates has been difficult. And other counties have defended their decisions to continue to focus on seniors.
In San Diego County, seniors account for 90% of COVID-19 deaths and the majority of hospitalizations, County Oversight Board Chairman Nathan Fletcher said at a press conference last week .
“For an elderly person, COVID-19 can be a death sentence. And so right now we’re doing seniors, ”Fletcher said. “Immediately after, we move to the first level of essential workers, namely law enforcement and teachers … We don’t think it would make sense to remove a senior and replace him with a young and healthy one. health. worker.”
Fletcher said that as San Diego County begins to detect any decline in demand for vaccines, “then we will be ready and willing to quickly open up the appointment system for teachers, law enforcement and law enforcement. for food and agriculture. [workers]. “
On Tuesday, the supervisory board rejected a proposal to allow law enforcement to receive vaccines.
San Diego County health officer Dr Wilma Wooten said other counties that provide law enforcement with vaccines are smaller than San Diego. She said law enforcement was next to receive the vaccines, and she recommended the council not change its policy, as the elderly are still the most likely to die from the disease and law enforcement officers of the order accounted for only 0.2% of people hospitalized for COVID-19.
Ventura County has taken a more conservative approach than its neighbors and has limited vaccinations to people 75 years of age and older and healthcare workers. Officials on Tuesday opened vaccination to people 65 and older.
“I want to thank everyone in this age group for their patience,” said Linda Parks, chairman of the county watchdog, who added that the county “really puts those who are most vulnerable first. “.
In the Bay Area, officials in San Francisco said on Tuesday they would be ready to open immunization appointments for educators, food workers and first responders on February 26. Alameda County has already expanded access to these groups.
So far, said San Francisco Mayor London Breed, more than 30% of San Franciscans 65 and over have received a first dose.
Other Bay Area counties have yet to open access to educators or food workers, including Santa Clara, Contra Costa and San Mateo counties.
Gary Warth and Paul Sisson of the San Diego Union-Tribune contributed to this report.
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