“Next week most appointments at our vaccination sites will continue to be for second doses,” Drs said on Friday. Paul Simon, scientific director of the county Department of Public Health. “We will only provide second doses at our Mega-POD (Distribution Point) Sites.”
County-operated Mega-PODs are located at Pomona Fairplex, Magic Mountain, the Forum, the Downey County Education Office and Cal State Northridge.
He said the first doses will be available elsewhere, mainly in health centers, pharmacies “and other providers serving the areas hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Due to lack of dose, city-run sites such as Dodger Stadium, Hansen Dam, Crenshaw Clinic, San Fernando Clinic, and Lincoln Park Clinic are temporarily closed. The city ran out of vaccines late last week and sites managed by the city are expected to reopen on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The county has received about 200,000 doses each week, although the actual amount has varied greatly week by week, making it difficult to plan reservations in advance. Supplies were so limited this week that the city of Los Angeles was forced to close the Dodger Stadium vaccination site and four other locations over the weekend because it ran out of supplies Thursday afternoon.
“We share his frustration,” Simon said. “We’re all frustrated. We know we could do a lot more if we had more doses. For example, we now receive about 200,000 doses each week, and because we’ve surveyed all of our suppliers, we’re sure we could administer up to 600,000 doses a week. So we have a lot more capacity if we get the vaccine available. “
Simon and the county health officer, Dr. Mount Davis, said the increase in supplies will be crucial as more people are eligible to receive the shots, noting that the state plans to extend eligibility next month to all people 16 years of age or older who have underlying medical conditions or disabilities. which make them highly susceptible to death or serious illness from COVID.
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Davis acknowledged the downward trends that generally improve in daily cases, but stressed that while the numbers improve, they remain high and “the risk of running into someone with COVID-19 who may not know that it’s still very high. ” ‘
County reported 137 deaths on Friday by COVID on Friday, while Long Beach health officials reported 14 fatalities and one in Pasadena, bringing the death toll to 18,804.
The county also confirmed another 3,497 new cases, along with 124 in Long Beach and 29 in Pasadena, bringing the cumulative total of the entire pandemic to 1,161,926.
The county also reported another 15 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, which raised the overall total to 90, including one death. Health officials noted that there has been a 35% increase in the number of MIS-C infections locally over the past two weeks. The syndrome usually develops in children after having COVID-19, although it has occasionally affected patients without a known previous infection.
According to state figures, there were 3,426 people admitted to the county due to COVID as of Friday, with 1,032 people in intensive care. In early January, there were more than 8,000 people hospitalized because of the virus.
“So there’s positive news when it comes to things falling apart,” Davis said. “We want it to keep going down because, as those numbers go down, we’re going into less restrictive levels and we can consider opening up more economy … and they have less restrictive changes.”
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He urged people to continue to adhere to protocols such as masking and physical distancing. He acknowledged the changes that were formalized this week, which allowed the resumption of interior church services with limited capacity and limits on activities during services. But he stressed that, despite the change, “places of worship are even safer to perform outside and remote services. These are the safest options for those at high risk for COVID-19 disease and those living with they”.
Davis also expressed dismay at the plans of Sun Valley’s Grace Community Church, which has repeatedly challenged county and court orders by holding massive interior services, to hold an interior religious conference in early March that it usually attracts more than 3,000 people. He said the county is “exploring its options” to challenge the event. These conferences are prohibited under health restrictions, but it is unclear whether the conflict would be exempt from religious gathering.
On Friday night, however, the church announced it had chosen to postpone the conference in light of its “ongoing litigation and recent threats from the county and state for the planned event.
As for vaccines, Simon said the latest data show that 1,345,949 doses have been administered in the county, with 1,047,074 first doses. A total of 13.5% of the county’s population aged 16 and over has received at least one dose and 3.8% of that population is fully vaccinated.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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