“With an acceptance rate of almost 75 percent in our department, the COVID-19 vaccine is allowing us to keep our first responders on track to stay as healthy as possible during the most challenging times of the pandemic,” county fire chief Daryl L. Osby declared.
“With the second dose of the vaccine now being given to our team members, this will provide another layer of protection and allow us to continue to provide the highest level of care to our patients.”
WATCH: LAFD Receives Enough Doses of COVID Vaccine for Department Firefighters
The department’s weekly positivity rate was 18% in December. That rate is now at 5.6%.
The fire department’s Emergency Medical Services Department coordinated its first vaccination clinics across the county in late December, administering more than 3,000 vaccines.
“As expected, the vaccine began to have an impact seven to ten days after the first vaccines were administered,” said LA County Fire Department Medical Director Dr. Clayton Kazan. “As the county continues to grow, new cases among department personnel have started to plummet, as has our test positivity rate. This is the first time in the entire pandemic that our data diverges from those in the county.”
Firefighters are expected to receive their second dose this week.
The video above is from an earlier report.
Copyright © 2021 KABC-TV. All rights reserved.