Teachers and food workers can now get vaccinated in LA County – CBS Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – Teachers and food and agriculture workers will be among 1.2 million Los Angeles County residents newly eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine starting Monday.

Also newly eligible for vaccination are child care workers, law enforcement personnel and emergency service workers. They will join healthcare workers and people over 65, who have been receiving the vaccine for several weeks now.

However, health officials have said these workers will need to be patient as vaccine stocks remain limited and staff are trained to ensure that only eligible people receive vaccines.

“Therefore, it will take a considerable amount of time to vaccinate these groups, unless the vaccine supply increases significantly,” said Dr. Paul Simon, scientific director of the LA County Department of Public Health. “We urge the public to be patient as we work through this process as quickly as possible.”

RELATED: Nearly 2 Million Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine Administered in LA County

About 700,000 LA County residents over the age of 65 have yet to receive their first dose.

The city of Los Angeles expects to receive approximately 70,000 doses of Moderna vaccine on Monday, which will primarily serve as second doses at its six mass vaccination sites – San Fernando Park, Hansen Dam, Crenshaw Christian Center, Lincoln Park, Pierce College and Dodger Stadium – when they reopen Tuesday after being closed Sunday and Monday.

“Our immunization program has overcome many challenges, but we’ve made it clear that nothing will interfere with our mission to deliver this life-saving vaccine to Angelenos as quickly and as safely as possible,” Mayor Garcetti said in a statement Sunday. “Opening up eligibility to more core worker groups will save more lives and speed up our recovery. We are encouraged to hear commitments for more vaccines from our federal and state partners, and are ready to scale up our operations so that we can end this pandemic. “

All second doses for that week are automatically scheduled for patients who received their first dose at a city site between February 1 and February 6. Patients will be notified with appointment details by Sunday evening.

The city’s mobile sites will also triple their total capacity this week, increasing doses to vulnerable communities from 4,000 to 12,000, officials said.

Garcetti’s office also said the city has started the planning process to incorporate the recently approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the FDA into its inventory in the coming weeks.

Simon said on Friday that sites run by LA County expected to receive a total of 269,000 doses this week, up from 211,000 last week. With the county reserving a majority of those for second doses, a total of 103,000 first doses will be available this week for all three sectors of workers and for people aged 65 and over.

Gov. Gavin Newsom demanded that 10% of all vaccines received in the state be immediately reserved for teachers, educators and other school staff. But dividing the education allowance among the 80 school districts in Los Angeles County will be a weekly challenge.

To solve this problem, the county devised a complex formula to distribute the vaccine fairly. Of the doses allocated to the education sector each week, 9% will automatically be directed to private county schools, reflecting the percentage of county students they serve.

The county’s 80 school districts – excluding those in Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments – will be divided into five groups. The remaining available doses will be distributed among these groups according to a formula that assesses the factors of overall student enrollment; the percentage of students living in poverty – based on those entitled to free or reduced price lunches; The rates of COVID cases in each community; and whether schools are already providing in-person services to the most disadvantaged students.

The formula means that LAUSD – the second largest school district in the country – will likely receive around 40% of the doses available in the education sector each week.

The state has cleared vaccines starting March 15 for anyone 16 years of age and older with an underlying health condition that puts them at a higher risk of serious illness or death from COVID. Public health director Barbara Ferrer said last week it was still not clear whether the county would actually expand eligibility for this group on March 15 due to supply issues.

Here is the full list of level 1B groups that are now eligible for the vaccine. For more information, or to verify your eligibility, click here:

(1) People aged 65 and over

(2) Education and childcare
• Public schools (K-12)
• Independent schools
• Charter schools
• Daycare and early childhood education
• Educational support staff under contract
• Junior colleges
• Colleges and universities
(3) Emergency services
• Police / law enforcement officers
• National security
• Correctional service officers and workers
• Courts / legal counsel and prosecutions
• Campus and school police
• Rehabilitation and reintegration
• Federal law enforcement agencies
• Police, fire and ambulance dispatchers
• Security personnel to maintain building access control and physical security measures
• DCFS, APS (workers responding physically to abuse and neglect of children, the elderly and dependent adults)
(4) Food and agriculture
• Food service workers
• Food industry workers
• Grocery store employees
• Livestock workers, including those involved in veterinary health
• Farmers
• Veterinarians
• Port and transport workers associated with food and agriculture

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)