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32 New COVID-19 Cases and 1 New Fatality Documented in Pasadena

City sets up online vaccine inquiry forms for education, child care, food and agriculture workers

Published on Wednesday, March 3, 2021 | 5:19 pm
 

Pasadena city officials have set up online inquiry forms for education, child care, food and agriculture workers to be notified when COVID-19 vaccines are available now that those groups are eligible for vaccination under state guidelines.

Meanwhile, the city recorded 32 new infections and one new death on Wednesday, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said. No details regarding the most recent fatality were available.

Over the course of the pandemic, Pasadena has seen a total of 10,949 cases of the virus and 317 deaths, according to city data.

Huntington Hospital reported treating 38 COVID-19 patients on Wednesday, with nine of those people requiring treatment in intensive care units. The facility saw an average of four new COVID-19 admissions over the prior week.

With education, child care, food and agriculture workers now eligible for vaccination under state guidelines, city officials have created online inquiry pages for members of those groups to fill out so they can be notified when vaccine doses are available. Emergency service providers are also included in the state’s new group of eligible workers, but the vast majority of them in Pasadena have already been inoculated.

The forms can be found online at https://www.cityofpasadena.net/public-health/covid-19-vaccine.

Officials urged residents to also consult with their primary care physicians about vaccine availability.

As COVID-19 numbers continued to improve in Los Angeles County, and with more restrictions likely to be lifted in coming weeks, the county’s public health director warned today that while an end to the pandemic is in sight, it’s not over yet.

“Our biggest worry is, of course, that people will relax too much, decide not to wear their face mask, decide not to keep their distance, decide to go back to having big parties,” Dr. Barbara Ferrer said during a virtual briefing. “We’re just not there yet. None of that would be safe at this point, and all of it can cause spread.”

Her warning came amid continuing downward trends in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, but with daily deaths regularly topping 100 and more variants of the virus appearing that could more quickly spread through a community still struggling to get fully vaccinated.

Ferrer said the county has now confirmed the first case of a COVID variant discovered in Brazil, and the number of cases of a variant that originated in the United Kingdom has shot up to 27, up from 18 known cases last week. And a California variant is becoming increasingly dominant, with county officials detecting the mutation in 31 of 55 specimens that were specifically tested for it.

“We still have a lot of community transmission,” Ferrer said. “We still have variants that are dominating that are thought to be more infectious, that’s the California variant, and an increased probability that we have more of the U.K. variant circulating as well. So our work is not done.”

She said news that vaccine supplies are expected to vastly increase in the coming months — beginning next week with the anticipated arrival of the first doses of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine — means an end is in sight. But people can’t abandon all infection-control measures before reaching the finish line.

“That means that we don’t have that much further to go, and it would just be horrible if in the few months that are left we go through another surge,” Ferrer said. “Our county frankly can’t afford that in multiple ways. We don’t want to do the see-sawing on opening and closing again.”

Los Angeles County is on track to exit the restrictive purple tier of the state’s four-level economic-reopening roadmap by late March. If it advances to the less-restrictive red tier, more businesses could be cleared to open, including indoor dining, movie theaters and fitness centers, all at limited capacity.

Figures released by the state Tuesday put the county’s adjusted average daily rate of new COVID-19 infections at 7.2 per 100,000 residents. If that number falls to 7 per 100,000 residents and stays at that level for two weeks, the county will be able to move out of the restrictive purple tier of the state’s “Blueprint for a Safer Economy,” and into the red tier. The county already meets the other two required metrics — with an average testing-positivity rate of just 3.5% and a “health equity quartile” of 5.1% — to advance to the red tier.

Ferrer noted that in addition to allowing more businesses to open, moving to the red tier would also allow in-person instruction to resume for students in grades 7-12. The county already meets the requirements for in-person classes for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

She got emotional as she read comments from recent discussions with school children about the difficulties the pandemic has caused on their families and their ability to continue learning.

“This pandemic has been extraordinarily difficult for so many, and it’s been powerful for us all to hear the voices of young people who have had the courage to tell us in their own words how they’re feeling,” Ferrer said, her voice breaking. “This is why we really do need to recommit ourselves to use every single tool we have to reduce transmission, to vaccinate everybody
who’s eligible and get to a place where all of our children can get back to school with the safety that’s required in their school community.

“Our children have been through something that none of us experienced as children, and we owe them all our support and our effort so that they can be as safe as possible as we move toward a more healthy future.”

Ferrer announced another 116 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday. The new deaths lifted the countywide death toll from throughout the pandemic to 21,669.

Another 1,759 cases were also announced, lifting the overall total to 1,195,913.

The California Department of Public Health announced 3,352 new infections and 278 deaths, raising the statewide totals to 3,484,963 COVID-19 cases and 52,775 fatalities.

The state’s average positivity rate over the prior two weeks held steady at 2.6%, according to CDPH data.

As of Wednesday, L.A. County represented 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 41% of the state’s deaths.

Related:

81.7% of Pasadena Seniors Vaccinated Against COVID-19

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