Garcia Says Vaccines for All City Employees; Hospitalizations in LA County Nearly Double In Two Weeks

Mayor Robert Garcia announced July 27, that Long Beach City employees will need a mandatory vaccination or be required to show a weekly negative COVID-19 test. Nearly 72% of city employees have already been vaccinated as well as hundreds of thousands of Long Beach residents.

Mayor Garcia noted the pandemic is not over, and Long Beach is seeing a worrisome rise in case rates and positivity. Just over a month ago, the case rate in Long Beach was less than 1 per 100,000 people each day. Right now, that rate is up to 21.6 per 100,000 people in the city. The city’s positivity rate, which was 0.5 percent in June, is 8.2 percent today. The mayor stressed the city must expand its efforts to get people vaccinated and protect the health of our community.

“It’s important that public institutions model responsible leadership and that public employees take these basic steps to protect the health of the community we serve,” Garcia said. “With vaccines readily available, the spread of COVID-19 is completely preventable without needing to impact small businesses or our economy.”

Vaccines are widely accessible in Long Beach. In addition to the Convention Center and Long Beach City College sites, eight mobile clinics are operating around the city as well as pop-up vaccination events and a mobile vaccination team for individuals who are not able to travel.

COVID-Related Hospitalizations in Los Angeles County Have Nearly Doubled in Two Weeks

LOS ANGELES -Driven by the more aggressive Delta variant, the County of Los Angeles Department of Health reported July 26, low vaccination rates in certain communities and more intermingling of unmasked individuals, hospitalizations in L.A. County almost doubled in just two weeks, with 745 people with COVID-19 hospitalized. Two weeks ago, on July 12, 372 people were hospitalized. 

Almost everyone hospitalized with COVID-19 in L.A. County is unvaccinated; Nationally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or CDC estimates that more than 97% of patients who have been hospitalized with COVID-19 since January have not been vaccinated. And while post-vaccination infections and hospitalizations can happen, these individuals tend to experience less severe illness because the vaccines are highly protective.

On July 26, , Public Health reported 4 new deaths and 1,966 new cases of COVID-19. The number of cases and deaths likely reflect reporting delays over the weekend 

Details: longbeach.gov/vaxlb and www.publichealth.lacounty.gov