Pasadena COVID Vaccinations Expand To Those 50 and Over

Pasadenans 50 and older became eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations on Thursday due to an expansion in health guidelines.

The expansion places 1.4 million Los Angeles County residents in the pool of people trying to get appointments that will remain limited until vaccine supply expands, which officials hope will occur by the end of April.

Local residents over 50 can sign up at https://myturn.ca.gov. 

According to the city’s COVID-19 information dashboard, 35,944 people have already been completely vaccinated and more than 60,000 people have received at least one dose.

The city continues to ramp up efforts to vaccinate the city’s LatinX and the Black communities. So far, only about 20 percent of the LatinX population has received at least one shot. Almost 32 percent of the city’s Black community has received at least one dose of the vaccine.

“The myturn site is the best option at this point outside personal physicians and pharmacies,” said Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian. “We are mostly doing second doses this week because we have not been allotted enough for first doses with the exception of a few smaller clinics. We have expanded our ‘interest forms’ online to those 16 years and older so we can make notifications when they are eligible.”

All told, about 1.4 million people in L.A. County are eligible for vaccination appointments.

“With surges in Europe and some states in the U.S., we are in a race against this virus,” said Dr. Kimberly Shriner, an infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital. “The threat of variants and resistant virus make it even more critical that we get as many people vaccinated as fast as possible. Over the next weeks, more adults will have access to vaccination. We urge everyone to take advantage of this life-saving opportunity.”

According to City News Service, the county officially crossed the 4 million mark in COVID-19 doses administered. 

According to the county Department of Public Health, 4,013,521 doses had been administered in the county as of last Saturday. That includes 1,323,686 second doses, equating to the number of people who are now fully vaccinated.

Still, officials are concerned about another surge.

Thirty U.S. states and territories are seeing increases in cases. While county Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer understands the desire to move beyond the pandemic, she said recent scenes of people flocking to beaches and Tuesday night’s celebration by UCLA students following the university’s NCAA tournament victory could lead to another surge.

Although the county advanced to the more relaxed “orange” tier of the state’s reopening blueprint on Wednesday, Pasadena officials said rules won’t be relaxed until 12:01 a.m. Monday.

Under the “orange” tier, restaurants may open for indoor dining at a maximum of 50% capacity or 200 people, whichever is fewer, in compliance with the protocol for restaurants, bars and breweries. 

Bars that are not able to provide a sit-down, bona fide meal with each alcohol transaction may operate outdoors with modifications including closing for on-site consumption at 10 p.m. and in compliance with the protocol for restaurants, bars and breweries. 

Breweries that are not able to provide a sit-down, bona fide meal may operate indoors at a maximum of 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is fewer, with modifications in compliance with the protocol for restaurants, bars and breweries.

Retail outlets may operate indoors at 75% capacity and with physical distancing in compliance with the protocols for retail operations.