Amid widespread confusion about when and how the elderly can get the coronavirus vaccine, two Los Angeles County supervisors are calling for people 65 and older to be vaccinated immediately.
“Gov. Gavin Newsom encouraged all counties to start vaccinating residents aged 65 and over, so that we can protect our residents who are most vulnerable to this virus. ” Supervisor Janice Hahn said Monday on Twitter. “LA County needs to follow the state’s example without further delay.”
Although the state announced last week that it was opening vaccination for older people, Los Angeles County has not received enough doses to expand the already slow distribution of vaccines. The county is still limiting vaccinations to health professionals, first responders, residents and teams of specialist nurses.
While this process needs to continue, Supervisor Kathryn Barger said in a tweet on Monday, the county also needs to “be flexible and immediately start the vaccination process for people aged 65 and over.”
Authorities were inundated with calls from older residents who want the vaccine. But the county said it would not begin the next phase of vaccination until health workers received their vaccines – probably not until early February. Officials estimated last week that some 450,000 health workers still need to be vaccinated.
“People are scared,” said Barger recently. “This is really the lesson I’m getting from the people who are calling. People are scared. “
By this week, according to county estimates, more than 40,000 doses per day will be administered at vaccination sites that include Dodger Stadium, five county-administered mega-sites – including Six Flags Magic Mountain and Pomona Fairplex – and a handful of locations smallest clinics in the city.
County health officials said they expected all qualified health workers to receive their first dose in the next two weeks. Those eligible for the next phase include people aged 65 and over, as well as those working in education, day care, emergency services or food and agriculture.
Los Angeles County Fire Department officials said on Monday that even a single dose of the two-dose vaccine regimen appears to have reduced infection rates among team members. Since vaccinations started in late December, positive test results have dropped from 18% to less than 6%, firefighters said in a press release.
“As the county continues to grow, new cases among department personnel have started to plummet, as has our test positivity rate,” said Clayton Kazan, medical director for the county’s Fire Department. “This is the first time in the entire pandemic that our data diverges from that of the County.”
A significant many firefighters have not yet come to be vaccinated. About 75% got their first photos, the press release said. A similar trend was observed at the Fire Department in the city of Los Angeles, with 40% refusing the vaccine, despite the deaths of two firefighters and almost a quarter of the force tested positive.
County firefighters are expected to begin receiving their second dose of the vaccine this week.
In other parts of Southern California, the elderly are already starting to get vaccinated. Orange County opened vaccination for residents age 65 and older, and Long Beach, which has its own public health department, moved on to the next vaccination phase on Friday, with Mayor Robert Garcia and other senior officials city getting the vaccine.
Long Beach cops and those 65 and older are now eligible for the vaccine. The city expanded its deployment after vaccinating some 15,000 health workers and residents of long-term care facilities, Garcia said in a press release.
Long Beach will also begin opening clinics to vaccinate grocery workers this week, with eligible educators the following week.
In Pasadena, which also has a separate health department from LA County, officials on Saturday offered applications to residents 75 and older who filled out a form expressing an interest in receiving the vaccine. Reservations were filled in two hours for the approximately 800 doses that will be available on Tuesday and another 1,000 to be administered on Thursday at Victory Park, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said.
City officials said they received the news on Saturday that they would receive enough doses this week to finish the rest of their high-priority medical workers and start vaccinating the elderly. Additional help from local hospitals and local pharmacies, which have received their own vaccine shipments, has eased the pressure somewhat, said Derderian.
The authorities have also been looking for elderly care institutions and elderly residents who may not be familiar with the online registration process. They are working to establish a larger mass vaccination site, perhaps in the Rose Bowl, and hope to extend the age group to 65 and older as soon as possible.
“It all depends on the amount of vaccine we receive from the state,” said Derderian. “We have the infrastructure to support the rollout. We just need the vaccine. “
Back in Los Angeles, just steps from Dodger Stadium, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced Monday morning at a virtual press conference that the city was stepping up efforts with the American Red Cross to provide thousands of COVID security kits. -19 – drawstring bags with hand sanitizer, face masks, COVID-19 tests and safety tips – for families in East LA, South LA and other communities that have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.
“We know that the most vulnerable parts of Los Angeles right now are the places where we have a dense life, a multigenerational life, a lot of poverty and essential workers,” he said. “This is where these outbreaks are happening.”
A helicopter roared overhead, interrupting his observations. A siren sounded in the distance. Garcetti ended by acknowledging Martin Luther King Jr.’s holiday and the need to bring racial justice to America, especially as the nation struggles with a disease that sickened and disproportionately killed black and Latino residents.
“Nothing like this pandemic,” he said, “showed how urgent this is still.”