Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer said on Wednesday that of the 73 COVID test specimens that have been carefully examined in the past week, more than half have been identified as “concerns” – 34% of which are a variant. from California and 29% a variant found for the first time in the United Kingdom.
This means that 63% of this week’s variant sequences are what we call “variants of concern” because they have an increased likelihood of transmissibility and potentially more serious disease, she said.
Concern has grown about the variants, as they are more easily transmitted from person to person, and at least one study has suggested that the California variant may be a little more resistant to current vaccines.
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Ferrer pointed out that the specimens tested in the last week were not chosen from a “scientifically selected, randomly selected sample”, so “we really have to interpret the results”.
Concern about the variants comes, because the county reports that it does not receive enough vaccines and gives priority to the second dose again. Ferrer said the county received about 280,000 doses this week.
“We went back to doing only the second dose, because we just didn’t get enough vaccine to be able to meet all two doses, to continue our commitment to our federally qualified health centers and partners. communities in the hard-hit communities and to be able to open up to our high-capacity sites for first-dose appointments, ”Ferrer said.
“We have over 600,000 meeting slots available this week. More than half of them are not open just because we don’t have doses,” she said.
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Meanwhile, local officials continue to urge residents eligible for a vaccine to be inoculated.
Magic Johnson, Arsenio Hall and Danny Trejo went to USC to receive one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines per room. LA Fire Department Chief Ralph Terrazas administered the photos to Johnson, Hall and Trejo at a city-run site on USC’s University Park campus to specifically encourage people in the southern United States to receive the vaccine.
“I’m so happy to be here with Danny and my 40-year-old friend, Arsenio Hall, to get this vaccination because it’s so important. I did everything right, wearing a mask, cleaning my hands all the time, I did a COVID-19 test seems like every two weeks, “said Johnson, who received the Pfizer vaccine.
Johnson, Trejo and Hall, nicknamed “New LA Dream Team” by Mayor Eric Garcetti, were joined by County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, City Councilman Curren Price and Ferrer to urge the South LA community to get vaccinated.
“Decades of systemic racism and the unfair distribution of resources that support good health have left these communities especially vulnerable to the pandemic,” Ferrer said. “In order to address the cruel injustice that this pandemic has revealed, the launch of the vaccine must focus with the laser on addressing equity issues and considerations for reducing barriers to vaccination.”
City News Service contributed to this service.
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