Nursery, emergency services and food and agriculture teachers and staff will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccination in Los Angeles County starting on Monday, although officials warn that the pace will be slowed due to limited supply.
Nearly 1.2 million people fall into these recently approved categories, according to county estimates. They will join some 2.2 million LA county residents who are already eligible to be vaccinated – those who work in healthcare, live in long-term care facilities or are 65 or older.
“Opening up eligibility for more groups of essential workers will save more lives and accelerate our recovery,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in a statement on Sunday.
The county has so far administered 2,049,666 doses of the vaccine (first and second doses), according to The Times vaccination tracker.
Newly qualified residents will be able to make appointments at city-administered vaccination sites starting on Monday, the mayor’s office said, but only a small number of appointments for the first dose will be available this week at Pierce College.
The 70,000 doses of Moderna vaccine that the city hopes to receive on Monday will go mainly to its six mass vaccination sites, which are open from Tuesday to Saturday, to be administered as a second dose, said Garcetti’s office. Consultations for the second injection were being automatically scheduled for people who received the first dose at a location administered by the city between February 1st and 6th.
Another 7,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, expected on Monday, will be delivered as first doses through the city’s mobile vaccination program, which aims to deliver vaccines directly to the worst-hit neighborhoods, officials said.
The program is set to triple the number of doses administered this week, from 4,000 to 12,000, through clinics offering first doses in Baldwin Hills, South Park, Highland Park, Panorama City, Westlake and Pacoima and clinics offering second doses in Baldwin Hills, South Park and Vermont Vista, the city said.
Supply remains the main barrier to delivering more vaccines, said Garcetti’s office, noting that last week the city administered more than 90,000 doses, a peak, but still only 68% of the program’s capacity.
Like many states, California distributed the vaccine in stages, establishing general criteria for who can be inoculated at each stage. Just how it happened, it varied by city and county, with officials facing tough choices when it comes to determining who should be prioritized to receive a limited share of the vaccine.
Long Beach, which has its own health department and receives its own vaccine supply, began vaccinating food workers and educators in January at industry-specific clinics. More than 3,000 restaurant workers, market workers, cooks and other food industry workers are due to be vaccinated on Friday at a clinic at the Long Beach Convention Center, the city said.
In San Francisco, education, daycare and food and agriculture workers were eligible to receive vaccines from Friday.
Orange County last week began allocating doses to workers in education, daycare and food and agriculture, saying it would dedicate 30% of its allocation to workers in those sectors, as well as to emergency services; the remaining 70% goes to residents aged 65 and over. Seniors and first responders working in high-risk communities can be vaccinated since mid-January.
San Bernardino County also expanded vaccinations for educators last week, and Ventura County said it would start vaccinating teachers, food and agriculture workers and emergency service workers.
San Luis Obispo County will start scheduling vaccinations for some local educators and teachers from Monday; they will be contacted by their employer for an interview and should not attempt to arrange an interview themselves, the county said.
California and other states have seen political disagreement over vaccination priorities, and leaders say such clashes are inevitable.
Governor Andy Beshear (D-Ky.) Said his state is about to become the first to fully vaccinate all educators, but the process has been controversial at times. “We push our teachers to the front of the line, moving them faster than the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] or other states, ”the governor said in an interview with CBS’s“ Face the Nation ”program.
“Everything is difficult at COVID, even the concept of what an essential worker is – is one person more essential than another?”
As far as educators are concerned, Beshear said, Kentucky was guided by science as well as social needs.
“It was a development for our children at school, emotionally and socially,” he said. “We made this call from the beginning – we did it.”
Expansions in eligibility come as public health officials in California and across the country continue to report falls in new cases and hospitalizations.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health reported 1,064 new cases of coronavirus and 107 related deaths on Sunday. There were 1,578 patients with COVID-19 in municipal hospitals on Saturday, a drop of nearly 50% from two weeks earlier.
Still, experts say it is critical to remain cautious.
President Biden’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday that, despite encouraging news about the decline in the number of national cases and the accelerated launch of the vaccine, some states, including California, are a source of concern because of the emerging variants of the virus.
In the “Face the Nation” program, Fauci said “we will be” victorious in the fight against the virus, but “we are not there yet, especially with the variants that are circulating in various parts of the country, such as California. and New York. “
In California, this includes the UK variant, which spreads more readily than its predecessors and can be more deadly, as well as a homemade variant that may have the ability to prevent antibodies generated by vaccines or previous infection.
The presence of variants, combined with the slow pace of vaccinations due to restrictions on supply and tiredness in relation to public health rules, expresses some fears of a potential “fourth wave” of new cases.
The possibility started a race to vaccinate as many people as possible before an outbreak triggers another wave of suffering and gives variants more opportunities to mutate. The authorities hope to significantly accelerate efforts with the arrival of a Johnson & Johnson vaccine that requires only one dose, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and does not need to be stored at low temperatures.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was released on Saturday by the Food and Drug Administration and recommended on Sunday by a CDC committee. Senior Biden administration officials said they were excited to add a third approved vaccine to the country’s arsenal.
“The main point here is that we have a safe and highly effective vaccine,” said an official, who asked to remain anonymous when discussing the government’s plans.
Another official said that nearly 4 million doses of Johnson & Johnson would be distributed on Tuesday.
However, this represents all of the company’s inventory and may take some time to increase production. An additional 16 million doses are expected to be shipped by the end of March. Delivery will be “irregular”, said the official, but “we are sending the doses as soon as possible”.
Fauci, appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union,” called the Johnson & Johnson vaccine approval “very good news.” If he was still waiting for an injection, he said, “I would get any vaccine that was available to me as soon as possible.”
Johnson & Johnson’s approval means that “we now have three important tools” to fight the virus through vaccination, said Fauci.
CDC director Rochelle P. Walensky agreed, saying in a statement that approval comes “at a potentially crucial moment”.
“The most recent data from the CDC suggests that recent declines in COVID-19 cases may be stalling and potentially stabilizing at still very high numbers,” said Walensky. “That is why it is so important that we remain vigilant and consistently take all the mitigation steps that we know will work to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while working for mass vaccination.”