Vaccination Doses in Los Angeles County Are in Extremely Limited Supply

Public Health Reports 262 New Deaths and 6,492 New Confirmed Cases of COVID-19 in Los Angeles County

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 262 new deaths and 6,492 new cases of confirmed COVID-19. The number of new cases and deaths reported today reflects the fact that testing sites were closed for the holiday weekend and there is slightly less testing capacity with the conversion of Dodger Stadium to a vaccination location. To date, Public Health has identified 1,038,092 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 14,384 deaths.

Today is the first day that Public Health began expanding vaccinations to Los Angeles County residents 65 years and older. With almost 1.4 million residents aged 65 and older, and between 700,000-800,000 eligible healthcare workers, the number of vaccines required to complete two doses is over 4 million. Since doses first arrived 5 weeks ago on December 14, the county has received only 853,650 doses, including doses that arrived today.

Only a very limited number of vaccination appointments are currently available for frontline health care workers and county residents aged 65 years and older. Residents in this high-priority age group may receive communication from their health care provider with information about COVID-19 vaccinations and how to receive one through their provider. They can also visit VaccinateLACounty.com to schedule an appointment for vaccination once more appointments become available. For those without access to a computer or the internet, a call center is open daily from 8:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. to help schedule appointments at 833-540-0473. Individuals are encouraged to use the website whenever possible to sign up for an appointment to avoid long wait times on the phone.

Public Health has built, through a very successful public-private partnership, a robust system that is capable of vaccinating a large number of Los Angeles County residents in a safe, fair and equitable manner. This includes the five large-scale vaccination sites that opened yesterday, the city’s large-capacity site at Dodger Stadium, as well as community vaccination sites, pharmacies, federally qualified health clinics, medical providers and hospitals. However, given the very limited supply of doses coming into our county, the biggest challenge the county faces is not one of process or capacity, but of supply.

As of last week, from the total of 685,000 received doses, more than 384,000 total doses have been administered to those in Phase 1A. This includes more than 307,000 first doses and more than 87,000 second doses that have been administered. Additionally, vaccines have been delivered to all 340 skilled nursing facilities in Los Angeles County, and to date, more than 68 percent of all eligible residents received their first dose and 65 percent of staff. We have begun this week to administer second doses to those who received their first dose at the end of December.

“Many county residents have lost a loved one due to COVID-19. We sincerely express our condolences and want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you,” said Barbara Ferrer, PhD, MPH, MEd, Director of Public Health. “While there is great interest in the COVID-19 vaccine, and for good reason, the vaccine supply is still extremely limited, and we want to urge everyone to have patience as we work urgently with our federal and state partners to expand capacity and supply in the weeks ahead. Of the vaccination doses that we received for this upcoming week, 73 percent of our allocation will need to be used for second doses. The little bit that remains, along with any vaccine that wasn’t used the previous week, is what is available for us to use for appointments for those eligible to receive first doses. We just are not receiving enough vaccine doses to move as quickly as we would like. In the meantime, we must continue to do what we know is right – wear a face covering, maintain physical distance, wash hands, don’t mingle with people outside of your immediate household and sanitize everything.  These tools are effective in slowing spread and keep people alive as we continue our vaccination efforts.”

There are currently 7,253 people currently hospitalized with COVID-19, and 23% of these people are in the ICU.

Of the 262 deaths reported today (not including Long Beach), 77 people that passed away were over the age of 80 years old, 104 people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, 60 people who died were between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, 19 people who died were between the ages of 30 and 49 years old and one person between the ages of 18 and 29 years old. Of the deaths reported today, 213 deaths were people with underlying health conditions, including 63 people who were over the age of 80 years old, 88 people who were between the ages of 65 and 79 years old, 44 people between the ages of 50 and 64 years old, 16 people between the ages of 30 and 49 years old and one person between the ages of 18 and 29 years old.

Of the total number of people who died, information about race and ethnicity is available for 13,503 people; 52% of deaths occurred among Latino/Latinx residents, 24% among White residents, 14% among Asian residents, 9% among African American/Black residents, less than 1% among Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander residents and 2% among residents identifying with other races. Upon further investigation, 274 cases reported earlier were not L.A. County residents.

Testing results are available for more than 5,282,000 individuals with 19% of all people testing positive.

The Reopening Protocols, COVID-19 Surveillance Interactive Dashboard, Roadmap to Recovery, Recovery Dashboard, and additional things you can do to protect yourself, your family and your community are on the Public Health website, www.publichealth.lacounty.gov.

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