Los Angeles County Fire Department sees “drastic decline” in COVID-19 positive cases after vaccines

LOS ANGELES (KABC) – The Los Angeles County Fire Department says it is seeing a “drastic decline” in the test’s positivity rate and the number of sick COVID-19 employees within its workforce.

“With an acceptance rate of nearly 75 percent in our department, the COVID-19 vaccine allows us to keep our first responders on track to be as healthy as possible during these most difficult times of the pandemic,” he said. the county fire chief, Daryl L. Osby. he stated.

“With the second dose of the vaccine now being administered to our team members, this will provide another layer of protection and allow us to continue to provide the highest level of care to our patients without problems.”

SEE: LAFD receives enough doses of COVID vaccine for department firefighters

The department’s weekly positivity rate was 18% in December. This rate is now at 5.6%.

The fire department’s emergency medical services office coordinated its first countywide vaccination clinics in late December, administering more than 3,000 vaccines.

“As expected, the vaccine began to have its impact between seven and ten days after the administration of the first vaccines,” said Dr. Clayton Kazan, medical director of the LA County Fire Department. “As the county continues to grow, new cases among department staff began to fall precipitously, as did our test positivity rate. This is the first time in the entire pandemic that our data has diverged from those of the county “.

Firefighters are expected to get the second doses this week.

The video above is from a previous report.