Vaccinations For Children 12 to 15 Could Be Authorized As Early as This Week

Pasadena officials on Sunday reported two additional cases of COVID-19 and no deaths.

The new numbers take the city’s total case count to 11,254 infections and 346 fatalities.

One out of 11 COVID-19 patients admitted to Huntington Hospital was being cared for in the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Meanwhile, the federal government could open vaccinations to children 12 to 15 as early as next week, potentially increasing demand for the Pfizer vaccine, which has cold-storage requirements Los Angeles County is equipped to meet.

As of last Sunday, 39% of L.A. County residents had been fully vaccinated — 67% among residents ages 65 and older and 33% among those 16 to 64.

Latino and Black residents continue to have the lowest rate of people being vaccinated.

Only 18% of Black men ages 16 to 29 have received at least one vaccine, and 20% of Black women in that age group have been inoculated. Only 30% of Black men and women ages 30 to 49 have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

The percentage of Black and Latino residents being vaccinated has improved greatly since February, with a 593% increase in vaccination rates among Latina/o residents 16 and older, and a 414% rise in the vaccination rate among Black residents 16 and up.

Despite the large increases, those populations still have the lowest overall rate of vaccination, with just 37% of the eligible Black population vaccinated, and 40% of the Latina/o population being inoculated.

Health officials stressed the importance of vaccinations, particularly as more people start intermingling with this week’s loosening of health restrictions in accordance with the county’s move to the least-restrictive yellow tier of the state’s color-coded Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

Los Angeles is the only Southern California county to advance to the least restrictive yellow tier. The rest of the region remains in the slightly more restrictive orange tier
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Asked why Los Angeles County appears to be outpacing neighboring counties in reducing case rates, a health care official credited residents and businesses for adhering to health guidelines. But that person also said the winter surge in infections is also a contributing factor to the current low case numbers.

“We had a devastating surge here with huge numbers of people that got infected, and many of those people are still carrying around some natural immunity,” said county Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer.

“The unfortunate thing about that natural immunity is that it is going to wane over time. It’s really important that people know that, yes, you have some protection if you were already infected, if you already got sick,” Ferrer said.

“But that protection diminishes fairly quickly over time. And that’s why we urge everybody who’s already been infected to come in and get vaccinated. But certainly for now, I think it has helped us in the spring keep our numbers down,” Ferrer said.