California is reviewing guidelines for administering COVID-19 vaccines

With the process of administering COVID-19 vaccines advancing more slowly than expected, state officials on Thursday issued revised guidelines to local health departments, authorizing them to shoot at lower-priority groups if demand declines between people in higher priority categories or if doses occur. about to expire.

Vaccine distribution follows a set of priority “phases” and “levels” described by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state and local officials, with health workers at the top of the list of priorities in what is known as Phase. 1A. There are three “levels” within this phase, covering various categories of medical workers and front-line staff.

Los Angeles County, for example, is in the middle of the second tier of Phase 1A.

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The revised guidance from the California Department of Public Health was released in the hope of “accelerating the pace of COVID-19 administration.” Gov. Gavin Newsom noted earlier this week that only a third of the vaccine doses received by the state were actually administered.

The guidance clears health departments to immediately expand the distribution of the vaccine to people at all three levels of the initial phase. The transfer immediately makes the vaccine available to health workers in areas such as optometry clinics, dental facilities, occupational health, pharmacies, school health centers, and specialized clinics.

Health departments were also advised to consider their vaccination efforts the likelihood that some people in the higher priority groups would refuse to receive vaccines. Once the agencies have completed their efforts to offer the vaccine to everyone in phase 1A, they will be able to move on to phase 1B.

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County public health director Barbara Ferrer said this week that she anticipated it would take until the end of the month to complete distribution to everyone in Phase 1A. Distribution would then move on to Phase 1B, starting with everyone aged 75 and over and considered workers at high risk of exposure, such as workers in education, food, agriculture, daycare and emergency services. .

According to the Los Angeles Times, fewer than 600,000 doses have been administered in California, which has a population of about 40 million people.

Ferrer said as of Monday, the county had received more than 185,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and more than 100,000 had been administered. The county has also received 166,300 doses of the Modern vaccine, but only 31,915 doses had been administered. He said there was a delay in reporting vaccination data, so rates were probably higher.

County health workers can sign up for vaccination appointments at http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/acd/ncorona2019/vaccine/hcwsignup/.

City News Service contributed to this report.