More coronavirus vaccination appointments available this week – Daily News

Los Angeles County officials said Sunday, Jan.24 that appointments were available this week at the county’s five major coronavirus vaccination centers at Magic Mountain, Pomona Fairplex, Cal State Northridge, The Forum in Inglewood and the county education office in Downey.

Appointments can be booked at www.publichealth.lacounty.gov/media/Coronavirus/vaccine/index.htm. Residents who receive their first dose of the vaccine at a high-capacity, county-run vaccination site will receive the date and location of their second dose and will be automatically checked in for their second dose appointment, according to the department. of LA County Public Health. . They will also receive email reminders.

Currently, only LA County health workers and residents 65 and older are eligible for vaccines.

Meanwhile, county health officials reported 8,243 new cases of COVID-19 on Sunday, for a total of 1,073,111 confirmed infections since the start of the pandemic. to 15,260 deaths.

Officials warned that the lower numbers were likely due to the reduction in weekend record keeping.

The county’s daily report did not include the latest figures from Long Beach and Pasadena, cities that run their own health services. Pasadena reported two more deaths, bringing its death toll to 226; 45 more new cases brought the city’s total to 9,776. Long Beach did not update its figures on Sunday. As of Thursday, the city had reported 577 deaths and 45,483 confirmed cases.

According to the state health department’s scoreboard, the number of hospitalizations continued to decline on Sunday, with 6,697 people treated in hospitals and about 1 in 4 in intensive care units. This is down from 6,697 on Saturday and 6,881 on Friday, the first time daily hospitalizations have fallen below 7,000 patients since December 29.

Officials cautioned, however, that while the number of hospital patients is on the decline, staff at local hospitals have continued to be stretched to the limit, with the number of people infected with the often-fatal virus still at alarming levels. . Officials once again urged residents to adhere to “Safer at Home” guidelines, including wearing a face mask in public, limiting travel to only travel that is really necessary and engaging in social distancing.

Officials urged patience among residents anxious to be vaccinated against COVID-19, with supplies woefully insufficient and the overloaded online reservation system leaving many frustrated as they attempt to schedule appointments.

“We are also seeing a decrease in hospitalizations and several other indicators that we are monitoring, including the test positivity rate, the percentage of emergency room visits associated with COVID-19 and the percentage of respiratory samples positive for COVID at the sites of surveillance of sentinel laboratories, ”said Dr Paul Simon, the department’s scientific director.

“However, despite these promising trends, I would like to stress that the number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths remains far too high,” he said. “So, while there is reason to hope, we must all remain vigilant and continue to be disciplined, wearing masks, physically moving outside the house, avoiding gatherings and within ourselves. washing hands frequently.

Simon said major sites in the region – each capable of delivering 4,000 shots per day – will operate at a much lower capacity this week, likely between 2,000 and 2,500.

The county expects to receive about 143,900 additional doses of the vaccine this week. However, since people are due to receive two doses of the drug, spaced three to four weeks apart, most of the vaccine coming this week will be used to give second doses to people who have already received the first vaccine. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer earlier estimated that only 37,900 of the new doses will be available for people to receive their first dose.

Simon said on Friday the most recent figures showed 441,140 doses of the vaccine had already been administered in the county, although he said that number was likely much higher due to delays in counting vaccination totals . As of that week, the county had received approximately 853,000 total doses.

Simon said people shouldn’t look at these numbers and assume that there are 400,000 unused doses in the county, again noting the delay in immunization reports and daily dosing. If the county’s weekly allowance does not improve significantly beyond the current average of around 150,000, “the vaccination effort will likely continue until 2022,” Simon said.

He said that if the county could get its allowance increased to 500,000 per week, “we would have the potential to reach 75% of the county’s adult population, or 6 million adults, by the middle of the year. summer.”

In the meantime, he urged patience, saying, “We understand how important it is to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible.”

He said the state was improving its vaccine appointment website, to which the county system is linked, so it should run more smoothly this week.

The county also has a call-in reservation system, which is available from 8 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at 833-540-0473. But that line should only be used by people who are unable to use the website, because call volumes are already extremely high, Simon said.

Also on Sunday, officials announced the scheduled opening of a pop-up COVID-19 testing site at Veteran’s Memorial Park, 6364 Zindell Ave. in commerce. The site will open on Tuesday.

The tests are free and no proof of medical insurance is required. All on-site testing will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. January 26-30.