First COVID-19 Vaccines Administered in Los Angeles County as Hospitalizations Accelerate at Disastrous Speed

LOS ANGELES – The first COVID-19 vaccine was administered in Los Angeles County Dec. 14.

The first shipment of vaccine also arrived Dec. 14, at one of nine pre-positioned sites, with the remaining eight sites receiving their shipment over the next two days. The current expected initial allocation for L.A. County is 82,875 doses, and Public Health is hoping to receive two additional allocations in December. This does not include allocations for the cities of Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own independent health departments and are receiving their own allocations. 

The nine prepositioned sites have been working with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and EMS to make arrangements to redistribute vaccines so that every acute care hospital that serves COVID-19 patients receives a pro-rata share of this initial allocation. 

A second allocation of the vaccine that should arrive later in December will allow for a distribution of vaccines to all health care personnel and residents at our skilled nursing facilities, along with continued distribution to frontline healthcare and EMS personnel. 

Public Health Dec. 14, has confirmed 48 new deaths and 7,344 new cases of COVID-19. 

There are 4,203 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 21% of these people are in the ICU.  Today’s number reflects an increase of more than 1,200 patients in just a week, when on Dec. 7, the daily number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 was 2,988.  Since Dec.1, the County has surpassed previous all-time highs every day. 

With over 4,200 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 and almost half of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients, by next weekend, there are likely to be over 5,000 patients hospitalized and more than 50% of ICU beds occupied by COVID-19 patients. 

Equally important as ICU bed capacity is ICU staffing capacity. Every bed needs to be staffed by highly trained and skilled healthcare workers. The recent surge in cases has resulted in huge increases in cases among our healthcare workers. In the last two weeks there have been over 3,400 new cases among healthcare workers. In early November there were 40 new cases among healthcare workers per day; last week there were nearly 250 cases among healthcare workers per day.