Public health responds to COVID-19 vaccination concerns and increase in cases



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By Edhat staff

Officials from the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department (PHD) have addressed concerns about the Moderna vaccine and the increase in COVID-19 cases.

California State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan released a statement on Sunday recommending that suppliers withhold administration of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine lot 41L20A due to possible allergic reactions being investigated. ‘investigation.

“Our goal is to deliver the COVID vaccine in a safe, timely and equitable manner,” said Dr Pan. “A higher than usual number of possible allergic reactions have been reported with a specific lot of Moderna vaccine given at a community vaccination clinic. Fewer than 10 people required medical attention in a 24 hour period. Caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccines, we recommend that suppliers use other available vaccine stocks and suspend administration of Moderna Lot 041L20A vaccines until investigated by the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)] and [U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)], Moderna and the state is complete. We will provide an update as we learn more. “

PHD deputy director Paige Batson said only six of the 330,000 doses of Moderna distributed to 287 providers across the state resulted in allergic reactions that did not require hospitalization.

The shipments arrived in California between January 5 and 12, and the state has not been notified of any other groups or individual events related to this batch.

Batson said she expects the state to phase out this batch of vaccine because the allergic reaction incidents were only linked to a single distribution site in Southern California, so it’s possible it was something other than the vaccine.

The state maintains that the risk of a serious adverse reaction is very low. Although there is less data on side effects related to Moderna vaccine, a similar vaccine shows that the expected rate of anaphylaxis is approximately 1 in 100,000.

The manufacturer, CDC, and the FDA review the batch and associated medical information.

The director of the doctorate, Dr Van Do-Reynoso, said the positivity of the COVID-19 test remains at 16% with a substantial increase in cases over the last week proving that the virus continues to spread.

The ministry expects an increase in reported outbreaks in the workplace due to a new state law requiring notification of three or more positive cases within two weeks. During the first week of January, 15 outbreaks were reported in work settings and 14 outbreaks in communities.

From January 9 to 15, the majority of infections were due to gatherings with 75% of those attending a reunion with family and friends.

On Tuesday, the PHD reported 342 new cases and five additional deaths. Three people were over 70 with underlying health problems and two were between 50 and 69 years old. Three of these deaths are associated with epidemics in collective care facilities. Two people resided in Santa Barbara, two were from Santa Maria and one resided in Goleta.

There are currently 2,465 active cases including 205 hospitalizations including 49 in intensive care unit (ICU). County ICU availability remains at 0%.

More details can be found at https://publichealthsbc.org.



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