Los Angeles County began scheduling COVID-19 vaccination appointments for residents 65 and older on Tuesday, accelerating an effort that wouldn’t start until February, but limited vaccine supplies and uncertainty about future allocations have fueled the vaccination effort. doubted.
County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said there are enough vaccine supplies to get through this week’s appointments – about 50,000 of them in public locations – but the county has no idea how many more doses it will receive next week.
“One of the problems everyone has had with the federal government’s allocation and distribution is that it has been week to week, making it difficult for our sites to plan a lot, and making it really difficult to expand hookups last longer than a few days, which makes it difficult for the public, ”she said.
Ferrer and County Supervisor Hilda Solis had both pinned their hopes
Wednesday inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, said the outgoing
Donald Trump’s administration has been less than transparent about vaccines
distribution.
“Tomorrow the new federal administration will take over and we expect our situation to improve greatly,” said Solis.
According to Ferrer, the province had received 685,000 doses of vaccine since late last week, of which more than 70% had been administered. The province is expected to receive a total of 168,000 doses on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.
Solis announced on Monday evening that she had signed an executive order to make COVID-19 recordings available to residents 65 and older. The announcement marked a major policy change, as Ferrer and other health officials have previously urged the county to end the vaccination of health workers before the limited vaccine offerings are offered to members of the general public.
Eligibility Wednesday is for residents 65 and older who receive COVID-19 vaccines. Patrick Healy reported Tuesday, January 19, 2021 on NBC4 News.
Ferrer on Tuesday downplayed any perceived internal conflict or disagreement, saying she did not view Solis’s executive order as a “ public health domination. ” Ferrer said the province has made huge strides in vaccinating health workers. , and she recognized the need to vaccinate older residents – who are at higher risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19 – even amid scarce vaccine supplies.
“It’s always difficult when you’re operating in scarcity, but I do understand that we need to be aware of moving forward as quickly as possible to get people at high risk, and I think the strategy has allowed us to do that To do, ” she said.
Although Solis initially said the vaccine would be made available to people 65 and older from Thursday, officials said those appointments begin Wednesday.
People who want to schedule appointments can do so online at vaccinateLAcounty.com. People without a computer or internet can call 833-540-0473 to make appointments. Officials urged people to make use of the online system as much as possible, as there will likely be long waits on the phone line.
But demand for the vaccine apparently exceeded the online appointment system’s ability to handle the load. Not long after district officials formally announced the nomination website on Tuesday afternoon, it crashed. County officials announced on Twitter that the website and hotline “handled thousands of calls and users and encountered technical difficulties.”
Some internet users reported that they were unable to access the system at all. Others were notified that the site was undergoing maintenance, while others could initiate the process of being kicked out of the system and forced to start over.
County officials said they were working to resolve the issues.
Gavin Newsom earlier this month announced revised vaccination guidelines, allowing jurisdictions to offer vaccines to people 65 and older. That group was originally several steps down the vaccine priority list.
While many jurisdictions, including Orange County and the city of Long Beach, soon began offering injections to older residents, Los Angeles County resisted, saying it still had about 500,000 health workers to be vaccinated.
But as progress is being made on that front, Solis said it was critical to start offering shots to vulnerable elderly residents.
“We know that COVID-19 has been particularly tough on people 65 and older,” Solis said. Just look at our figures. More than 99,000 residents aged 65 and older are infected with COVID-19; 30,000 of those residents 65 and older have been hospitalized because of COVID-19; and tragically, 9,802 residents in this age group have died of COVID-19. Those are of the 14,000 people who died.
“… This is about equality,” she said. “Older adults have been unfairly affected by the virus. They have been isolated at home for months, which, as you know, is a problem in itself. The COVID-19 vaccine is here. Hope is here. Our residents will soon be able to return to a life where they can visit their grandchildren, go for walks with friends, volunteer at a local soup kitchen and even visit the LA County Fair at the Fairplex as we are that once
back to normal. “
Concerns over vaccine availability were compounded this week when the state epidemiologist warned health care providers to stop administering doses from a batch of 330,000 Moderna vaccines in response to allergic reactions from a handful of people in San Diego.
“A higher than normal rate of possible allergic reactions was reported with a specific lot of the Moderna vaccine administered at one local vaccination clinic,” said epidemiologist Dr. Erica S. Pan in a statement late Sunday. “Less than 10 people required medical attention for 24 hours. Out of extreme caution and also because we recognize the extremely limited supply of vaccines, we recommend that providers use other available vaccine inventory and interrupt the administration of Moderna Lot 041L20A vaccines until the end of the period. Research by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete. We will provide an update as we learn more. “
San Diego County health officials confirmed last week that half a dozen health workers vaccinated at the vaccination center in Petco Park had developed allergic reactions.
Those 330,000 doses of Moderna vaccine that are no longer available represent 10% of all vaccines received by the state to date – delivering a blow to counties like Los Angeles who have asked for more vaccine allocations to keep up with demand .
Los Angeles County opened five large-scale vaccine sites on Tuesday – in Six Flags Magic Mountain, Cal State Northridge, the Pomona Fairplex, the LA County Office of Education in Downey and the Forum in Inglewood. The sites will eventually have the ability to vaccinate 4,000 people daily – depending on the availability of the vaccine.