Gov. Newsom says more doses of COVID-19 vaccine will arrive by next week amid surge
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Amid an ongoing surge and the day after the first doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine were administered to some healthcare workers in Los Angeles County, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced more doses were set to arrive by next week.
According to Gov. Newsom, 393,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive in the Golden State by next week and another 672,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are set to arrive by the end of the month.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its preliminary analysis confirmed the effectiveness and safety of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, a key step toward approval of a second coronavirus vaccine in the U.S.
RELATED: FDA says preliminary analysis confirms effectiveness, safety of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
On Monday, 33,150 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived Monday at four locations throughout the state including in Los Angeles County.
As part of Newsom’s "Vaccinate All 58," plan in reference to distributing the vaccine to all California counties, healthcare workers and residents of long-term care settings were considered priority in Phase 1A. He added Phase 1B includes 8 million people, which is "currently being discussed in a public forum."
Newsom indicated Phase 1B will include essential workers including teachers, farmworkers and grocery store employees.
"There is light at the end of the tunnel- but we are still in the tunnel,” Newsom said. He also emphasized California is in the midst of its “most intense surge to date."
Not only are more people testing positive for COVID-19 at an alarming rate, but more Californians are also dying from virus complications. Newson said on Nov. 14, the 7-day average of COVID-19 deaths was 41. As of Monday, the number has spiked to 163.
Newsom revealed the 14-day positivity rate statewide is 10.7%, which the state hasn’t seen since the very first few weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.
The California governor also shared troubling intensive care unit numbers. Overall, the state's ICU availability was just 5.7%.
In Southern California, the reported ICU capacity rate as of Tuesday morning dropped to 1.7% and 1.6% in San Joaquin Valley.
When it comes to other portions of the state, ICU capacity was at 15.8% in the San Francisco Bay area, 14.9% in the Greater Sacramento area, and 29.8% in Northern California.
Gov. Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti were present when the first doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine were administered at a Kaiser hospital in East Hollywood.
RELATED: First coronavirus vaccine doses administered to healthcare workers in LA County
Over the weekend, Los Angeles and San Francisco counties hit another grim milestone and broke record case numbers of the virus.
Riverside County has been hit especially hard amid the ongoing surge. On Monday, health officials there reported that licensed ICU capacity reached 0% and those on the frontlines told FOX 11 they were most concerned with staffing to treat both COVID and non-COVID patients.
RELATED: Licensed ICU bed capacity in Riverside County drops to 0%, officials say
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