76.6% of Pasadenans Fully Vaccinated Against COVID-19

More than three quarters of Pasadena residents over the minimum eligible age of 12 have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, the Pasadena Public Health Department reported Thursday.

In addition to the 76.6% of Pasadenans considered completely inoculated against the virus, another 9.8% have already received at least one dose of two-dose vaccine regimens, according to city data.

Pasadena Director of Public Health Dr. Ying-Ying Goh thanked Pasadenans for heeding the calls to get immunized.

“We are so grateful to our community members for getting vaccinated. They are the ones making it possible for us to open our economy fully, keep our rates of COVID-19 infections low, and to gather and socialize once again,” she said.

“Unfortunately, right now we are still seeing one to two cases of COVID-19 per day in Pasadena, which means the virus is still here and still spreading. The people getting sick from COVID-19 are unvaccinated individuals, and it’s so unfortunate because it’s preventable,” Goh said.

“If you have friends or family members who haven’t been vaccinated yet, please help ensure they get protected as soon as possible, especially because we know that the more infectious and dangerous delta variant will quickly become the predominant strain this summer,” she added.

Among seniors age 65 and up, 99.9% have received at least one dose, records show. Seventy-five percent of Pasadenans between 12 and 17 years old have received at least one dose.

Looking at the data by racial demographic, 85.3% of residents of Asian or Pacific Islander heritage have received at least one dose, compared with 80% of white residents, 60.2% of Black residents and 50.8% of Latino residents.

As vaccination figures increase, so-called herd immunity may help further depress the spread of the virus in the community. But the onslaught of new strains of the virus make it difficult to say when that level of immunization has been reached, officials said.

“Herd immunity will be hard to define now that the delta variant is increasing in prevalence. This will make the level of community immunity needed to stop transmission go up even higher, but we don’t know yet,” Goh said.

“Also, herd immunity does not mean that there’s no COVID-19 anymore. It means that we will see a slowing of new cases such that we don’t see sustained transmission —we would only see cases occasionally when someone unvaccinated gets exposed to covid due to travel or visitors,” Goh said. “We are still seeing daily new cases.”

Los Angeles County health officials announced earlier this week that more than 10 million doses have been administered in the county, with 58% of residents 16 and older being fully vaccinated, and another 9% receiving at least one dose.

At the state level, 57.6% of California residents 12 and older were fully vaccinated as of Thursday, according to California Department of Public Health data. Another 10.2% have received at least one dose.

Meanwhile, PPHD officials reported a single new COVID-19 infection on Thursday and no new deaths.

In all, Pasadena has seen 11,325 cases of COVID-19 and 349 fatalities. No deaths have been reported since June 3.

Over the prior week, an average of 1.1 new cases were detected each day, records show.

The Los Angeles County Department of public health reported an increase in transmission in the county with 314 new infections and 10 deaths on Thursday.

“This is the highest number of new cases we’ve reported in a day since May 15,” L.A. County Director of Public Health Barbara Ferrer told City News Service.

While the numbers remain at relatively low rates compared to prior months of the pandemic, the noted increase “is a signal and a reminder to all of us that the virus is still with us, and that even now we need to be careful to mask and maintain distance from people outside of our households, especially if they’re not yet vaccinated,” she told CNS.

L.A. County’s pandemic totals have risen to 1,248,415 COVID-19 cases and 24,465 fatalities.

The California Department of Public Health announced 1,419 new infections and 81 deaths on Thursday, but noted that the figures included 462 backlogged cases from Riverside County, primarily from 2020.

All told, the state has recorded 3,706,846 cases of COVID-19 and 62,822 fatalities.

The statewide average positivity rate over the prior week stood at 1.1%, according to CDPH data.

As of Thursday, L.A. County accounted for 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 39%of the state’s deaths.