LA County To Offer 2nd Booster Doses To Residents 50 And Older

LOS ANGELES, CA — Eligible residents of Los Angeles County will be able to get a booster shot as soon as Wednesday following approval from federal regulators on Tuesday, public health officials announced.

The second shots of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for people who are aged 50 and over, and who received their last booster shot at least four months ago.

Los Angeles County Department of Public Health vaccination sites will begin offering the second doses to eligible residents Wednesday at:

-- Obregon Park in East Los Angeles;
-- Ted Watkins Park in South Los Angeles;
-- Balboa Sports Complex in Encino;
-- Commerce Senior Citizens Center in Commerce;
-- Market Street Center in Santa Clarita;
-- Palmdale Oasis Recreation Center; and
-- Norwalk Arts and Sports Complex.

The news comes as the county notes an uptick in COVID infections attributed to the BA.2, an offshoot of the Omicron variant that spurred a winter surge in cases and hospitalizations.

The BA.2 sub-variant accounted for 14.7 percent of all specially sequenced cases from the week ending March 5 — more than double the 6.4 percent rate from the previous week, the county reported.

The mutation is also responsible for a recent surge of cases in Europe, as well as spikes in some East Coast cities in the U.S.

"The increasing presence of the highly transmissible BA.2 subvariant in many regions of this country reminds us that we need to remain vigilant and prepared for the possibility of more cases in the near future," Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said in a statement last week.

Experts have suggested that BA.2 is potentially 30 percent more contagious than the Omicron variant, which was already substantially more easily spread than the original COVID-19 virus.

"I think the main problem with BA.2 is even more transmission," Troels Lillebaek, a molecular epidemiologist at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark, told Nature.com. "You risk even more people testing positive within a short time, putting strain on the hospital system."

Both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were shown to be 70 to 80 percent effective at preventing hospitalization or death from the subvariant. That effectiveness increased to more than 90 percent after a booster shot, according to early studies.

"Waiting until we start seeing increases in cases is not optimal, since once there are more people testing positive, there is already more community transmission," Ferrer said.

As of last Sunday, 83 percent of eligible county residents aged 5 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and 75 percent were fully vaccinated. However, only 30 percent of children aged 5-11 have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate of any age group.

Among Black residents, only 55.4 percent are fully vaccinated, along with 58.9 percent of Latina/o residents, compared to 73 percent of white residents and 82 percent of Asian Americans.

Dr. Eric Topol, a cardiologist who is director of the Scripps Translational Research Institute in California, told CNN that he was in favor of a fourth shot.

"There are solid data from Israel for age 60+ (the only group reported on to date) for enhanced protection (vs severe illness) out to 3 months compared with 3 doses. It is reasonable to extend that and provide it as an option, since the 3rd dose has pronounced benefit in age 50+," Topol told CNN in an email.

City News Service contributed to this report.