The Pasadena Public Health Department is holding off on beginning COVID-19 vaccinations for adolescents pending review and approval by state and regional officials after federal regulators gave approval for the Pfizer vaccine formulation for use in adolescents on Monday, officials said.
The vaccine, which was previously approved only for people 16 and older, has been demonstrated to be safe for children of at least 12 years old, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a written statement.
“The FDA’s expansion of the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to include adolescents 12 through 15 years of age is a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.
Today, FDA expanded the EUA for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for the prevention of #COVID19 to include adolescents 12-15 years of age. FDA amended the EUA issued on Dec. 11, 2020 for administration in individuals 16 years of age and older. https://t.co/3ROLW8WXwL pic.twitter.com/d9zwg7BS4q
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) May 10, 2021
“Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic,” she said. “Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations.”
But the Pasadena Public Health Department was waiting to hear from the California Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and The Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup before taking action, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian said. The officials were expected to weigh in on the issue on Wednesday.
If approved by the state and regional level, vaccination of 12- to 15-year-olds will likely begin in Pasadena as early as Friday, Derderian said.
California’s immunization website at myturn.ca.gov was not accepting registrations for patients younger than 16 as of Monday afternoon.
Roughly 1.5 million COVID-19 cases had been reported nationally in patients aged 11 to 17 as of April 30, according to the FDA statement. “Children and adolescents generally have a milder COVID-19 disease course as compared to adults.”
Meanwhile, the Pasadena Department of Public Health reported two new COVID-19 infections and no additional deaths on Monday.
The city had documented 11,258 confirmed infections, in total. The local death toll remained at 346 since the last fatalities were reported in Pasadena on April 30.
An average of 2.7 COVID-19 cases were detected in Pasadena daily over the prior week, according to city data.
With the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations slowing in Los Angeles County, the public health director said today it could take slightly longer than originally anticipated for the region to reach a point of so-called herd immunity than previously thought.
Early in the vaccination effort, health officials had estimated the bulk of the county’s population would be inoculated by the end of June.
Speaking to reporters Monday, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said the county is now predicting a point of “community immunity” by mid- to late-July.”
“We’re currently getting about 400,000 vaccinations into the arms of L.A. County residents each week, and we have probably over 2 million more first doses to go until 80% of all L.A. County (residents) aged 16 and older will have received at least one vaccine,” she said. “At the rate we’re going, we expect that we can reach this level somewhere in mid- to late-July. But that assumes that we continue to at least have 400,000 people vaccinated each week. That would include both first doses that people need, as well as their second doses.”
Overall, as of Friday, nearly 8.5 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the county — more than 5.1 million first doses and more than 3.3 million second doses.
The county announced just four new COVID-19 deaths on Monday, although numbers tend to be lower on Mondays due to reporting lags from the weekend.
The deaths, however, pushed the county’s death toll across the grim 24,000 milestone, reaching 24,003.
Another 179 cases were confirmed by the county, raising the total from throughout the pandemic to 1,235,797.
According to state figures, there were 374 people hospitalized due to COVID-19 in Los Angeles County as of Monday, with 79 people in intensive care.
Ferrer said last week the county’s average number of daily hospitalizations has fallen to a level not seen since the pandemic was declared in March 2020.
State public health officials announced 1,377 new infections and 13 deaths on Monday, raising the statewide totals to 3,655,922 COVID-19 cases and 61,241 fatalities.
The state’s average positivity rate over the prior week was recorded at 1%, according to California Department of Public Health data.
As of Monday, L.A. County represented 34% of California’s COVID-19 infections and 39% of the state’s deaths.