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Dr. Barbara Ferrer provides update on LA County’s response to COVID-19 pandemic
Los Angeles County's Public Health Director, Dr. Barbara Ferrer, provided an update Friday on the county's response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
LOS ANGELES - Los Angeles County will continue to prioritize the COVID-19 vaccine to hard-hit communities, despite eligibility requirements opening up to all adults in California by April 15, County Health Director, Dr. Barbara Ferrer said during an interview on Good Day LA Friday.
"We still do have supply constraints, so we’ll need patience as folks try to make appointments until we see a huge increase in supply coming into LA County," Ferrer told GDLA anchor Michaela Pereira. "When you start adding millions and millions of more people, who become eligible, it just means everyone is going to need to wait a bit to get those appointments."
Ferrer said that the county will continue to prioritize the vaccine to hard-hit communities, adding that as early as next week, the county will begin some piloting of efforts to start opening up for more residents to get vaccinated in those neighborhoods.
On Thursday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state would start vaccinating anyone 50 and over in a week and anyone 16 and older on April 15.
Newsom said eligibility is being expanded in response to an anticipated spike in vaccine supply in the state over the next month. Los Angeles County has been receiving, on average, about 300,000 doses per week, despite having the capacity to administer more than double that amount weekly.
The county has already begun discussions with various vaccination providers to expand capacity in light of the upcoming increase in supply.
On Thursday, the county reported another 66 deaths due to COVID-19, while Long Beach health officials added two more, increasing the countywide total from throughout the pandemic to 23,022.
The county also reported another 608 cases, while Long Beach added 56 and Pasadena 13, lifting the cumulative total to 1,216,319.
RELATED: Los Angeles County tops 23,000 COVID deaths, but hospitalizations dip again
According to state figures, there were 692 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID as of Thursday, down from 729 on Wednesday. The number of people in intensive care ticked upward, from 169 Wednesday to 183 on Thursday.
Ferrer warned that more-infectious COVID-19 variants are becoming more prevalent in the county, most notably a California-grown variant and another first identified in the United Kingdom. The spread of those variants, which can be more easily passed from person to person, has raised concerns about a possible reversal of the downward trend in infections -- at a time when the county is poised to advance further in the state's economic-reopening blueprint.
But barring any major new surge in COVID case numbers, the county is on track to enter the less-restrictive orange tier of the state's Blueprint for a Safer Economy by the first week in April, likely in the days following Easter Sunday. Once that happens, it will be up to the county to decide whether to fully adhere to the state's orange-tier guidelines for businesses that would be allowed to open or expand capacity.
CNS contributed to this report.
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