Vaccine eligibility is expected to expand starting next week, but the availability of appointments will depend on how many doses the county expects to receive – and county officials will not know that figure for another day.
There will be almost 400 places in LA County that will administer the vaccines. The new eligible people will include food and agriculture workers, teachers and other child education and care workers, as well as emergency services and first responders.
The expansion comes even as more good news is on the horizon, with Johnson & Johnson saying its new vaccine could be available in a few days.
The FDA says the Johnson & Johnson vaccine meets the requirements for emergency use authorization and could happen as early as Friday. The company says it could have 20 million doses available by March and 100 million by the end of June.
The vaccine has been 85% effective in preventing severe disease and data show that it works against all variants, even the highly contagious variant in South Africa, although it is less effective.
It needs a single dose and does not need extreme refrigeration, such as Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The director of public health in Los Angeles County, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, said that this could be a good boost for the county’s vaccination efforts.
“A lot of people will be very happy when we start getting Johnson & Johnson,” Ferrer said. “Just one dose. That means you go in once for vaccination and then you’re done.”
The county’s website does not yet accept meetings for the extended group next week, until the county finds out how many doses it expects to receive.
Once this begins, approximately 25-29% of available appointments are expected to be allocated to teachers and other schoolchildren. The county is developing a priority-based system for school districts based on poverty levels and coronavirus cases in the district community.
The latest numbers from LA County
Even as vaccination efforts expand, Los Angeles County continues to report more new cases and deaths than it saw before the holiday season.
The county reported 136 new deaths on Wednesday and 2,157 new cases. The county has now recorded a total of 20,987 deaths caused by COVID-19.
This total death toll has been adjusted upwards by 806 deaths recently, after county officials discovered a series of coronavirus-related deaths that were not reported through the normal paper process, but were found in a certificate check. of deaths. These 806 deaths took place during the increase in leave from 3 December to 3 February.
Since the pandemic began, the county has reported 1,185,457 cases of COVID-19.
Ferrer said that since last week, the county has had an average of about 72 deaths a day from COVID-19. By comparison, at the beginning of November the average was about 14 deaths per day.
“While we have reached the other side of terrible growth, it is important to remember that we have done this with a huge heart, disease and death,” Ferrer said.
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