All health workers in the country can now be vaccinated, including those working in emergency or primary care clinics, dental offices or pharmacies, but this is not limited. Previously, only frontline workers in hospitals and nursing homes were allowed to get the chance.
Officials want to accelerate the implementation – which is significantly slower as cases continue to increase – with the possibility of vaccines expiring if they are not distributed in time.
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The province wants to vaccinate 500,000 health workers by January.
The five new vaccine distribution sites, which are expected to open in the province next week, will also house the vaccination site operating in the city, at Dodger Stadium, which was the largest COVID-19 test site in the country. , opened it.
The province already has dozens of vaccination sites throughout the area that provide doses of the medication. The new high-capacity sites – of which the sites have not been released – “will enable us to speed up vaccinations for health workers in the foreground,” provincial director of public health Barbara Ferrer said on Monday.
“These five sites, in addition to our private partner sites, allow us to complete an additional 500,000 vaccinations among our health workers by the end of January,” she said.
If the majority of the health workers in the country get vaccinations by the end of the month, the next phase of the spread effort is expected to begin in early February. The phase, known as 1B, would include people 75 years and older and some categories of essential workers. At the end of March, the province hopes to start Phase 1C, which includes people 50 years and older, or people older than 16, with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk for serious illnesses.
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The vaccination effort comes as the province and state continue to experience an increase in COVID-19 cases and deaths – with one person dying on average every eight minutes in the province and ten people testing positive every minute.
Ferrer said the province “is rapidly increasing our pace to reach the bleak milestone of 1 million cases.”
With 12,617 new infections confirmed Monday, along with 122 announced by Pasadena health officials and 88 by Long Beach, the nationwide total since the pandemic stood at 932,908. The province also announced another 137 COVID-19 deaths on Monday, while Pasadena confirmed another fatal death, raising the nationwide death toll to 12,388.
Hospitals are still flooded with coronavirus patients, with only 650 beds available – including 48 beds for intensive care units – as of Monday at the 70,911 reception centers. But officials over the past few days have expressed insignificant optimism about the decline in new hospital admissions.
According to the state, as of Monday, there were 7,926 COVID-19 patients in LA County hospitals, including 1,724 in intensive care. Last week, the total number was above 8,000. Gavin Newsom’s government said on Monday that the number of people admitted to hospital over the past two weeks had increased by 6% over the past 14 days, ‘some of the smallest increases we have seen in a two-week period.
“It’s just a point of optimism, a little light,” Newsom said, while also warning that another jump in hospitalizations is possible given the recent winter break.
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Christina Ghaly, director of health services in Los Angeles County, also noted that the number of hospitalizations has apparently ‘stabilized’ after dramatic training over the past few weeks, but the overcrowding in hospitals is still not alleviated. hospitals treat more than half of all admitted patients for COVID-19, and more than 75% of ICU patients have the virus. She said the numbers are the same for other hospitals nationwide.
“We still have patients admitted to the emergency departments, and our clinics still care for more patients than under normal circumstances,” Ghaly said.
“… There is a nationwide shortage of staff at all hospitals in healthcare facilities, and we are still very much in the midst of this deadly boom,” she said. We will be following the data very closely over the next few days. , because this is the time we would expect patients to see the increase in patients from the recent Christmas and New Year holidays. ‘
Provincial Superintendent Hilda Solis, who again urged residents to adhere to infection control measures, such as wearing masks and staying at home as much as possible, offered a grim reminder of the continuing seriousness of the pandemic, noting the pain of people who dies due to COVID. -19 in a hospital, separated from loved ones.
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“Dying to COVID in the hospital only means dying,” Solis said. “… Families say goodbye to tablets and cell phones.”
Solis said she had heard stories from health workers about such conversations, saying they often included children or younger family members apologizing to parents or grandparents for bringing the virus into their homes.
“These apologies are some of the last words loved ones will ever hear when they die alone,” Solis said. “Please do not let it be your family. Do not let it be your parents or grandparents.”
About 5 million people have been tested for COVID-19 in the country since the pandemic began, with 18% testing positive.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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