Vaccination Of Essential Workers Begins In Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA — Hundreds of eligible "essential workers" were administered COVID-19 vaccines Friday at a mobile clinic in South Los Angeles, an effort to reach out to Black and Latino communities that have lagged behind in the vaccination effort.

The mobile vaccination clinic at a Service Employees International Union hall just south of downtown was operated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in cooperation with the union and other worker-support groups. And it came ahead of a major shift in vaccination eligibility in Los Angeles County, where shots will become available Monday to workers of all ages in education, food/agriculture and law enforcement and emergency services.

Shots are currently restricted to people aged 65 and over, people who work in health care, and those who work or reside in long-term care facilities.

County Supervisor Hilda Solis hailed Friday's effort to bring the vaccines to workers in South Los Angeles, noting that a system of individualized access codes provided to the workers by the union other sponsoring groups ensured that outsiders could not "jump in front of the line anymore."

"These are essential workers -- airport workers, janitorial staff, people that work in health care," she said. "These are the front-line people that have been out there, the invisible faces that people don't want to see, but they are there in thick and thin. They put their lives at stake for us.

"... In the coming months, we're going to be rolling out more of these mobile clinics," she said. "We're going to be in East L.A., we're going to be in Southeast L.A., South Central, we're going to be in Pacoima. We're going to be in all those hot spots. That's where the epicenter is."

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti also visited the mobile vaccination site, saying more remote clinics will be coming.

"We might celebrate, as we should, that (COVID case) numbers are coming down, but this is great news, to bring these mobile sites," he said. "And the city of Los Angeles has now five of these, the federal government has two, they're going to add a third one next week.. And we're going to have five more. So we'll have 13 of these teams that are out there in the community where people can most access."

An estimated 1.7 million more people will become eligible for COVID-19 shots in the county on Monday, when eligibility expands to the three classes of essential workers.

Most notable among the newly eligible workers are teachers, amid growing pressure for schools to reopen for in-person instruction. Many teachers' unions, including the one representing Los Angeles Unified School District educators, are pushing for school staff to be vaccinated before in- person classes resume.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has mandated that 10% of all vaccine supply received in the state be immediately set aside for teachers, child care workers and other school staff.

County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said this week that roughly 25% to 29% of the county's available supply of first doses of the vaccine will be allocated for the education sector. Of those doses, 9% will be automatically directed to private schools in the county, based on the percentage of county students they serve.

The 80 individual school districts in the county -- excluding those in Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments -- will be divided into five groups. Remaining available doses will be divided among those groups based on a complex formula that factors overall student enrollment, the percentage of students living in poverty -- based on those eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, COVID case rates in each community and whether schools have already been providing in-person services for higher-need students.

The formula means the LAUSD -- the second-largest school district in the nation -- will likely receive about 40% of available education-sector doses each week.

Anyone eligible for a shot in the county can make an appointment at www.vaccinatelacounty.com.

The 1.7 million workers becoming eligible for shots Monday will join roughly 700,000 county residents aged 65 and over who are already eligible but - - as of mid-week -- haven't received a dose yet, along with many health care workers who have not yet been vaccinated.

The state has authorized shots beginning March 15 for anyone aged 16 and over with an underlying health condition that puts them at higher risk for severe illness or death from COVID. Ferrer said it's still unclear if the county will actually expand eligibility to that group on March 15. She said the county is waiting for more details from the state about how that expansion will work, and whether the county can realistically offer those shots given continued limited vaccine supply.

"A lot really depends on what that rollout needs to looks like," she said. "We're always anxious to again expand eligibility, particularly if you have more doses. But you have to do it in a way that makes sense."

City News Service