Due to a shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in LA County, Dodger Stadium and four other non-mobile vaccination sites will temporarily close this week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at a news conference on Wednesday.
The vaccination site of Dodger Stadium and other locations in the city will be closed on Friday and
Saturday.
And while only a fraction of residents 65 and older have received a COVID-19 vaccine and supplies of the drug remain terribly low, Los Angeles County will expand vaccinations to a range of essential workers in two to three weeks, including teachers. and the public health director said Wednesday.
The measure follows an appeal from the governor at the end of January for vaccines to be offered to workers in three categories: education / daycare; food and agriculture; and emergency and law enforcement services.
In Los Angeles County, these categories represent about 1.3 million people, meaning that even after they become eligible for vaccines, it will take weeks to fully vaccinate them, which requires two doses spaced three to four weeks.
The expansion of vaccine eligibility will occur even if the county continues to administer vaccines to currently eligible populations – health professionals, residents and nursing staff and long-term care institutions and residents aged 65 and over.
The sunny Saturday allowed residents to get out and enjoy returning meals outdoors. Kim Tobin reported on NBC4 News on Saturday, January 30, 2021.
Public health director Barbara Ferrer noted that, to date, only 20% of residents aged 65 and over have received at least one dose of the drug. The county receives an average of only about 200,000 doses of the drug per week.
With vaccine supplies still so low and the number of eligible residents expanding, getting an appointment for an injection can become much more difficult.
“We are trying to keep up with what is happening across the state,” said Ferrer. “… In some counties, smaller counties or smaller cities, they have already been able to start vaccinating in these sectors and have also not completed vaccination for all their family members aged 65 and over.
“At this point, we would like to make significant strides towards vaccinating older people,” she said. “… Our hope is that in the next two weeks you will see this number increase in terms of the number of elderly people being vaccinated. But it is also an acknowledgment that we have to start with some of our key employees. It will be very difficult to wait weeks and weeks and weeks until we complete an entire sector before proceeding. “
The county is prioritizing the second dose of the vaccine, but appointments for the first dose are still available at Dodger Stadium. John Cádiz Klemack reported on NBC4 News on Tuesday, February 9, 2021.
Representatives from various sectors have been lobbying state and local authorities to make vaccines available, creating what Ferrer acknowledged is a difficult process of deciding who will come first. The issue of vaccinating teachers has become a major problem in recent days amid pressure from Governor Gavin Newsom and some local officials to return students to classrooms.
But the Los Angeles Unified professors and the superintendent said that teachers and staff need to be vaccinated before this can happen, although the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says otherwise.
Ferrer pointed out on Wednesday that 1,700 schools were opened last fall in the county with a limited number of students and another 300 are operating under an exemption program that has allowed younger students to return to campuses, and “we have seen very few outbreaks” of the virus, and those that occurred were small and easily contained.
Ferrer said the county is also taking steps to address disparities in vaccine distribution in general, with statistics released this week showing that of the more than 1 million doses administered so far, only 3.5% have been for black residents.
One man wanted to share his experience with COVID-19. Hetty Chang reported on NBC4 News on Monday, February 8, 2021.
She said the county opened 10 more vaccination sites this week in eastern and southern Los Angeles, and mobile vaccination teams are spreading to housing estates and senior care centers in the affected communities. Community health workers are also being sent to interact with residents, in some cases going door to door, to provide information about the vaccine and dispel any myths that may be preventing people from being vaccinated.
The county reported another 141 deaths from the coronavirus on Wednesday, bringing the total death toll to 18,500. Another 3,434 cases have also been reported, increasing the total number of the entire pandemic to 1,155,309.
Deaths and cases have declined in recent weeks, as the county recovers from the increase in cases in winter, as well as hospitalizations. According to state data, there were 3,772 people hospitalized due to COVID in Los Angeles County on Wednesday, and 1,105 people in intensive care.
It has been a dramatic drop since the beginning of January, when more than 8,000 people were hospitalized. Ferrer said the decline cases are hopeful, but she tempered the optimism. “Our optimism about this reduction is cautious,” she said.
“The number is still more than three times the average daily rate of cases that we reported in September. In addition, we are at a time of year when people may be more tempted to get together. We hope that all residents will choose not to meet with people outside their home or travel to celebrate the Lunar New Year, Valentine’s Day or President’s Day ”.