The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Friday released for the first time detailed data tracking the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination effort in more than 340 neighborhoods across the province.
To date, 12% of the province’s ten million inhabitants have been vaccinated, with preference given to health workers, residents of long-term care facilities and people aged 65 and over.
If you look closely at the map, you can see that the numbers can vary greatly from place to place.
In some neighborhoods on the affluent Westside, such as Beverly Hills, 25% of residents have already received the first dose of the two-shot vaccine. In contrast, South LA and neighboring cities such as Compton, where incomes are lower and a majority of residents are Latino, have only 5% of the population vaccinated.
Provincial officials say these differences are due to long-standing problems with access to health care, education and poverty, which have so far failed to overcome government outreach efforts.
The areas with the most Latin and Black elderly were also hardest hit by the coronavirus. A comparison of the new vaccination maps against the spread of the virus shows that the areas with the highest cases have the lowest vaccination rates.
“These inequalities are unacceptable and require renewed efforts to ensure access to vaccines for people in the hardest hit communities,” said Barbara Ferrer, head of the Public Health Agency.
The areas hardest hit have the lowest vaccination rates
In Lancaster, 7% of the total population was vaccinated with at least one dose.
In South Los Angeles, only 1 in 24 people are vaccinated, while 1 in 6 people tested positive for COVID-19. This area tends to be younger, have a lower income and has a majority Latino and Black population.
The areas hardest hit have the lowest vaccination rates
In Lancaster, only 7% of the total population was vaccinated with at least one dose.
In South Los Angeles, only 1 in 24 people are vaccinated, while 1 in 6 people tested positive for COVID-19. This area tends to be younger, have a lower income and has a majority Latino and Black population.
The areas hardest hit have the lowest vaccination rates
In Lancasteronly 7% of the total population was vaccinated with at least one dose.
In South Los Angeles, only 1 in 24 people are vaccinated, while 1 in 6 people tested positive for COVID-19. This area tends to be younger, have a lower income and has a majority Latino and Black population.
The areas hardest hit have the lowest vaccination rates
In Lancaster, only 7% of the total population was vaccinated with at least one dose.
In South Los Angeles, only 1 in 24 people are vaccinated, while 1 in 6 people tested positive for COVID-19. This area tends to be younger, have a lower income and has a majority Latino and Black population.
In Beverlywood, located south of Beverly Hills, 17% of the population is vaccinated, despite the fact that the case is much lower than the national average. This affluent neighborhood with a majority white population has a comparable number of elderly people 65 years and older than the trade, a majority Latino and low-income neighborhood in southeast Los Angeles.
In trade, vaccination rates are half of what they have in Beverlywood, although there are more than double the number of cases per person.
To address the inequality, provincial officials say they plan to send more outreach workers into the field and add vaccination sites in underserved areas. On Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti vowed to expand the fleet of mobile vaccination clinics and ship to Pico Union, Chinatown, Vermont Square and other areas.
The new figures released on Friday also include the first look at the ages of the people who have been vaccinated so far. Of the 1.1 million first doses administered on February 14, a little over half are to those over 65 years of age. Forty-seven percent went to younger than 65 years, who qualify because of their profession or obtained vaccines in other ways.
Province officials could not provide data for all ethnicity groups due to flaws in their data collection efforts. No estimates were provided for the elderly in the Indian and Pacific Islands. Some vaccination numbers were also not available to the elderly who were identified as a multiracial breed.
Officials are also not yet able to determine where residents were vaccinated at the hundreds of sites spread across the province, including pharmacies, hospitals and mass vaccination sites such as Dodger Stadium.
Provincial officials have promised to release new numbers weekly.