7:09 p.m. ET, January 22, 2021
Vaccinating all Los Angeles County residents could take a year, county health official says
From CNN's Sarah Moon
Staff and volunteers distribute the Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday, January 19, in Inglewood, California.
Al Seib/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images
At the current rate Los Angeles County is receiving its doses of the coronavirus vaccine, it would take up to a year to vaccinate all of its adult residents, Dr. Paul Simon, L.A. County chief science officer for the Department of Public Health, said in a briefing Friday.
The county has an extremely limited supply of doses and is expected to receive only 150,000 doses next week, Simon said. At this rate, “the vaccination efforts will likely extend well into 2022.”
If allocations double, vaccinations for adults in Los Angeles County could be completed by the end of 2021, he added.
By the numbers: As of Thursday, at least 441,000 doses of the vaccines have been administered in the county.
With the lower number of doses arriving next week, Simon said he expects the county’s mass vaccination sites to be operating at less than max capacity and provide about 2,000 to 2,400 doses of the vaccine a day.
According to a news release from the public health department, the county “has only received enough vaccination supply to inoculate 1 in 4 people who are currently eligible.”
Simon said that two million people in the county are currently eligible for the vaccine, which includes about 800,000 health care workers and 1.3 million residents who are 65 years and older.
He repeatedly asked residents for their patience as the county continues to work hard to get more people vaccinated.
Los Angeles County on Friday reported 9,277 new cases of the virus and 256 additional deaths.
The public health department said the amount of new cases this week are “considerably lower,” with a 30% decrease in the seven-day average of daily cases from last week. The test positivity rate has also dropped to 12.7% from 20.8% on Jan. 1, a 39% drop in three weeks.
To date: Los Angeles has a total of 1,054,802 confirmed cases and 14,894 deaths. With over 10 million residents, Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the nation.