Eligibility for the vaccine 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 about 400 sites in Los Angeles County that will administer the vaccines. New eligible people will include food and agriculture workers, teachers and other child education and care workers, emergency services and first aid workers.
The expansion comes even as more good news is on the horizon, with Johnson & Johnson saying its new vaccine could be available in a matter of 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 in March and 100 million by the end of June.
The vaccine was 85% effective in preventing serious disease and the data show that it works against all variants, even the highly contagious South African variant, although it is less effective.
It only needs one dose and does not need extreme refrigeration like the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Los Angeles County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said this could represent a good boost to 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 come in once to get vaccinated and you’re done.”
The county website still does not accept appointments for the extended group next week, until the county knows how many doses it expects to receive.
Once started, it is expected to be allocated to 25-29% of available appointments for teachers and other school staff members. The county is developing a priority-based system for school districts based on the level of poverty and coronavirus case rates in the district community.
Latest LA county numbers
Although vaccination efforts are expanding, Los Angeles County continues to report more new cases and deaths than was seen before the holiday increase.
The county reported 136 new deaths and 2,157 new cases Wednesday. The county has now seen a total of 20,987 deaths from COVID-19.
This total death toll rose to 806 deaths recently after county officials discovered a series of coronavirus-related deaths that were not reported through the normal documentary process, but were found in a control. of death certificates. These 806 deaths occurred during the holiday increase from December 3 to February 3.
Since the pandemic began, the county has reported 1,185,457 cases of COVID-19.
Ferrer said last week the county averaged 72 deaths a day from COVID-19. In comparison, in early November the average was around 14 deaths a day.
“Even though we have reached the other side of the terrible wave, it is important to remember that we did it with tremendous disarray, illness and death,” Ferrer said.
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