Child in mask (Photo – theknowledgeexchangeblog.com)
Since COVID cases started surging in early November, deaths cases increased by more than 1,000%. Deaths increased from 12 deaths a day in early-November to more than 200 daily reported deaths last week.
By News Desk
According to L.A. County Health Department, every minute, on average, 10 people in L.A. County test positive for COVID-19, and these 15,000 individuals who test positive each day were capable of infecting others for two days before they had any symptoms or knew they were positive. At least 10-12% of people infected with the virus end up hospitalized at some point, and more than 1% of people diagnosed with COVID-19 end up dying.
A press release by the County’s Health Department stated the following plea:
Now is the time to avoid, as much as possible, contact with others that aren’t in your household. When you must go out, to work or for essential services, always wear a mask, keep your distance from others, wash your hands frequently, and bring sanitizing wipes with you to wipe down your cell phone, your car keys, your workstations, the door handles and anything you touch and anything other people are touching. This is the time to be extremely cautious and very careful.
Los Angeles County Health Department confirmed 137 new deaths and 12,617 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, Jan. 11, 2021.
To date, Public Health identified 932,697 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 12,387 deaths.
Vaccination program expanded
Starting on Monday, Jan. 11, Public Health expanded the vaccination program to include all healthcare workers within Tiers 2 and 3 in Phase 1A. More than 75 vaccination locations have been established to facilitate the administration of doses to individuals within these tiers. To date, Los Angeles County has opened more than 20 designated vaccination centers for frontline healthcare workers in Phase 1A and has made arrangements with multiple pharmacies to facilitate vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers and others within Phase 1A. (Visit the Healthcare Provider Information Hub and scroll to the bottom of the page for details on how to make an appointment).
County staff supporting this intense effort
Public Health, in collaboration with the County Fire Department, Internal Services Department and the Office of Emergency Management, is planning to open five large-capacity vaccination sites next week that will speed up vaccinations for frontline healthcare workers in Phase 1A. Public Health department staff are being reassigned in order to expand capabilities for this short-term effort. These five sites, in addition to private partner sites, will allow the county to complete 500,000 additional vaccinations among healthcare workers by the end of January.
Phase 1B
As the County nears the end of Phase 1A at the end of January, the County can look to starting vaccinations for groups within next phase 1B. The County expects to begin vaccinations for eligible individuals in Phase 1B, assuming ample vaccines are allocated to the county, by early February. Following that, we expect to begin vaccinations for persons within Phase 1C in late March.
Phase 1B and Phase 1C both include essential workers in some categories of work as well as people who are older and in Phase 1C, people with underlying health conditions.
For more detailed information on COVID-19 vaccination plans in L.A. County and to sign up for a vaccination newsletter, visit: VaccinateLACounty.com
Town Hall
Public Health will host a COVID-19 Vaccine Town Hall on January 19 to allow residents to learn more details about the vaccine and their program to immunize as many people as possible in the coming weeks and months. The town hall will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @lapublichealth. (For more information, visit publichealth.lacounty.gov).
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