Vaccine short even as seniors become eligible
Appointments are being scheduled, but scarce stocks limit how many can get the shot in coming weeks.
Severe limits in the supply of COVID-19 vaccine will restrict how many older residents of Los Angeles County get vaccinated in the coming days and weeks, public health officials said Tuesday.
Officials said residents ages 65 or older could begin scheduling appointments on Tuesday to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but slots were limited to about 50,000 this week, largely due to a shortage of doses.
The decision to open the vaccine eligibility list to seniors was made to accelerate access to a population that has been disproportionately affected by the virus. But it will take time to vaccinate all 1.3 million residents in the age group, officials said.
“We do not have enough of the COVID-19 vaccine for everyone,” said L.A. County Board of Supervisors Chair Hilda Solis. “That includes all those 65 and older, but we will get there. Patience.”
During a town hall Tuesday evening, public health officials further explained the limitations affecting the vaccine supply chain.
The officials do not anticipate a significant jump in the amount of COVID-19 vaccine the county receives in its weekly allotment in the near future, said Dr. Seira Kurian, director of the L.A. County Health Department’s Division of Medical Affairs.
Kurian said officials originally thought the federal government had reserves of vaccine that would be delivered to counties to beef up supply when municipalities started administering second doses.
“But because it’s unclear how much, if any, of those reserves are available, what will most likely happen is that we’ll probably not be seeing a huge increase in the number of doses coming into us every week, but we are expecting to still be receiving the vaccine doses at the current rate and at the current levels, at least for the short [term],” Kurian said.
Over the past few weeks, the county has followed the state’s protocol to vaccinate thousands of healthcare workers. But last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that counties could start vaccinating seniors before finishing with healthcare workers. That was not initially part of L.A. County’s plan, and officials said they had to quickly build up an efficient vaccine distribution system amid surging caseloads.
Since March, nearly 100,000 L.A. County residents ages 65 or older have been infected with the coronavirus, and more than 30,000 of them were hospitalized. Of the 14,000 people who have died from COVID- 19 in L.A. County, almost 10,000 were age 65 or older, the county said Tuesday.
To boost distribution, the county Tuesday opened five large-scale vaccination sites, with plans to inoculate 20,000 people daily.
Since December, the county has received 685,000 vaccine doses, and more than 70% of those had been administered by the end of last week, according to the Department of Public Health. The county expects to receive an additional 168,000 doses this week.
“We’re not yet sure about our allocation for next week, which will need to cover those healthcare workers that need their second doses, as well as everybody who’s ready for their first dose,” Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday afternoon.
Ferrer estimates that L.A. County could run out of doses by early next week. “We just have to see how many doses we’re going to get for the following week,” she said.
Other counties across the state report similar supply problems. San Francisco’s health department said it will run out of vaccine Thursday because the city’s allocation dropped substantially from a week ago and doses that had to be discarded were not replaced.
The amount coming from the federal government has fluctuated from week to week, which makes it challenging to plan how many appointments should be made available and adds to the public’s anxiety and frustration, Ferrer said.
“It’s always hard when you’re operating in scarcity, but I do appreciate the need for us to be mindful of moving forward as quickly as we can to get those at high risk [vaccinated], and I think that’s what this strategy allows us to do,” Ferrer said.
Residents age 65 or older can sign up for an appointment at the county public health department’s website, vaccinatelacounty.com. Those without computer access can call (833) 540-0473 between 8 a.m. and 8:30 p.m.
The city of Los Angeles is also offering the vaccine to anyone in Los Angeles county who is 65 or older, through a different online portal,
Many who tried to reach the county call center Tuesday to book an appointment reported that their calls dropped after the recorded prompts played.
During the county’s town hall Tuesday, residents said the websites to sign up repeatedly crashed, and language saying only healthcare workers could get vaccinated was confusing.
reservation system is linked to the state of California system, which crashed for several hours Tuesday afternoon,” the county said in a tweet Tuesday evening. “Thousands of individuals were nevertheless able to schedule vaccination appointments and at this time there are no more appointment slots available at County sites.”
The county said it will add more workers at its call center and will likely add more vaccine appointment slots later this week.
