3 Million Shots, LA County Enters “Dangerous Times”

Los Angeles, California — In a herd immunity competition, Los Angeles County now has more than 3 million COVID-19 shots. Imminent in this effort are the spread of multiple coronavirus variants and another threat of proliferation.

Los Angeles County health officials said Friday that the first case of a British variant known as B.1.1.7 was in Pasadena, as safety measures were blocking the proliferation of coronavirus cases until herd immunity was achieved. Emphasized that it was confirmed.

Dr. Paul Simon, Chief Scientific Officer of the County Public Health Department, warned that Los Angeles is “entering a dangerous time.”

“In some parts of Europe and the United States, cases and hospitalizations have recently revived,” he said. “In addition, the spread of viral variants remains a major concern, so keep discipline to adhere to the use of face masks, physical distances, avoidance of large gatherings, and non-essential travel delays. Is essential. “

Health officials in Pasadena have also warned against unnecessary trips to accelerate the spread of worried variants.

“The Pasadena Public Health Service (PPHD) has received the first confirmed infection report of a Pasadena resident infected with COVID-19 variant B.1.1.7. This variant was first identified in the UK and is easier. And spreads quickly (about 50 Pasadena health officials are more likely to have more infections than other variants on Friday, causing more serious illnesses based on hospitalization and case mortality. ” “In California, 265 cases of the B.1.1.7 variant have been reported.”

“These cases show why it is so important to limit non-essential travel and mix households as much as possible during a pandemic. It is clear that vigilance cannot be neglected. It reminds me, “said Dr. Ying-Ying Goh of Health. Officer and Director of the Pasadena Public Health Service. “

Although vaccine supply remains tight, health officials in Los Angeles County are preparing to receive one million doses a week in May, when the country’s vaccine supply is expected to slow.

The county is currently capable of administering about 630,000 doses per week, but due to limited supply, it is actually only about 300,000 to 350,000 doses per week. Next week, the county will receive only about 280,000 doses, which will be increased by supplies sent directly to some providers, such as the federal site in Los Angeles, California.

Dr. Paul Simon, Chief Scientific Officer of the County Public Health Department, said on Friday that vaccination would take place on Friday if supply increased dramatically by late April or early May, as President Joe Biden predicted. Given that it is already underway, the county moves the rest of the population fairly quickly.

“To ensure that we are prepared for this increase, we have begun working with our network of vaccine providers to expand our county-wide vaccination capacity to more than one million times a week,” said Simon. “Recently, President Biden announced that he would open vaccinations to all people over the age of 16 by May 1. We look forward to working with the state to achieve this goal. I will. “

According to Simon, as of Wednesday, a total dose of 3,234,989 vaccines had been administered in the county, but he admitted that the number could be much higher due to delays in reporting.

Of these doses, 2,177,195 was the first dose (including 25,170 single doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine) and 1,057,794 was the second dose. This means that approximately 1.08 million people living or working in the county have been fully vaccinated.

Simon said the county would work deeper on vaccination efforts by the time supply increases in late April or early May if vaccination continues at its current pace. If the county started taking up to 1 million times a week, taking large doses of Johnson & Johnson’s single dose would “subsequently quickly reach the general adult population within a month or two. I can handle it. “

As the county goes deeper into vaccination efforts, however, vaccination hesitation among some people will become a bigger issue, Simon said, which needs more outreach. Means that there is.

“I think we need to work very hard to make sure everyone has accurate information about the vaccine,” he said. “And if vaccines continue to show a strong safety profile so far, we can continue to reassure people that they are safe. That will be important.”

On Friday, the county reported an additional 756 COVID-19 cases, raising the cumulative total from the entire pandemic to 1,213,288.

An additional 60 deaths were reported by the county, increasing the total death toll to 22,722.

According to state statistics, as of Friday, 827 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 in Los Angeles County, and 220 in the intensive care unit. Both of these numbers decreased from 861 cases reported Thursday and 238 in the ICU.

As more schools reopen for face-to-face instruction in Southland and beyond, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated guidance on Friday to reduce the physical distance between classroom students from the standard 6 to 3 feet. Showed that it can be reduced to.

Health officials have not yet had the opportunity to discuss the issue, Simon said, but guidance is likely to be incorporated into the county’s school guidelines. However, he emphasized that the 3-foot guidance applies only to schools.

“It’s especially in the classroom,” he said. “So what I don’t want people to do is say,’Well, yeah, 3 feet is virtually anywhere.'” Certainly not. Their guidelines were very specific, 3 feet in elementary, middle and high school classrooms, but everyone always wore face masks and made sure the class was cohort. “

City News Service and patch staff Paige Austin contributed to this report.