Statewide vaccine eligibility will widen to all those at least 16 years old in mid-April, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Thursday morning, March 25, the same day Los Angeles County received a sobering reminder that the virus remains a threat — with its coronavirus-related death toll topping 23,000.
Newsom announced the statewide eligibility expansion on Thursday morning, via Twitter, right before a visit to a Santa Ana vaccination center. In the evening, Los Angeles County health officials announced they’d fall in line: Those at least 50 years old can receive the vaccine beginning April 1. Anyone at least 16 years old can be vaccinated starting April 15.
The expansion will precede by two weeks the target date President Joe Biden set for all states to open vaccine eligibility, which was May 1.
“With the state’s announcement today, it means everyone age 16 and over will be eligible for the vaccine in mid-April,” Barbara Ferrer, director of L.A. County’s Department of Public Health, said in a Thursday statement. “Expanding vaccine eligibility over the next couple weeks will make it easier for more people to get vaccinated provided the county receives more doses.”
But available doses in the county remain below what is needed, health officials said, which could make it more difficult to get vaccinated — especially if demand increases with the expansion.
“L.A. County vaccination sites continue to operate below their capacity,” a county statement said, “and have the ability to vaccinate more than twice the number of residents each week than our current allocation allows.”
The county has administered about 3.2 million doses as of last week, according to its online dashboard, with about 1 million of those second shots.
But Newsom on Thursday said he expects vaccine supply to quickly increase.
California gave out 2.5 million vaccine doses last week. By the end of next month, Newsom said, it will be able to administer 4 million doses a week.
“Our ability to do more has always been constrained by supply, manufacturing supply,” Newsom said. “We have confidence now of the manufacturing supply becoming available sooner than we anticipated.”
It’s unclear, though, how that projected increase will filter down to local health jurisdictions.
But Long Beach, for its part, has said it’s already seen supplies increase. That city, which has its own health department, reported that it had been allocated 16,970 additional doses on Thursday, and over the last week, supply has grown by 27,220 doses.
Long Beach also announced Thursday that it had opened vaccinations to those 50 and older, effective immediately. The city, though, did not have an estimate on when it would open vaccinations to those 16 and older.
“We’re committed to making vaccinations available to as many people as possible,” Mayor Robert Garcia said, “and now all Long Beach residents and workers 50 and older are eligible to be vaccinated.”
Pasadena, which also has its own health department, echoed L.A. County’s concerns about vaccine supply.
Dr. Ying Ying Goh, that’s city’s Public Health director, said Pasadena would like to join Los Angeles County in expanding vaccine eligibility. But, she added, doing so is dependent on the city’s vaccine supply increasing.
And even if supply does increase, Goh said, the city still has myriad technical issues to work through, ranging from increasing staffing at vaccination sites to ironing out bugs in the state registration portal.
L.A. County, meanwhile, said the scare supply has reinforced the county’s priority to inoculate those in the hardest hit communities.
“Our priority is to ensure that residents and workers in hard-hit communities are each able to get vaccinated,” Ferrer said in her statement. “As eligibility expands, we will redouble efforts to increase accessibility and availability of vaccines in communities with the highest risk and lower rate of vaccinations.”
The expansion of vaccine eligibility, though, came the same say L.A. County also hit what officials called another “devastating milestone” — 23,000 dead.
The Public Health Department on Thursday reported another 66 residents had died from coronavirus-related causes, bringing the death toll to 23,020. It also reported 608 new confirmed cases, bringing the total to 1.2 million since the pandemic began.
And those 66 deaths, while lower than during the overwhelming winter surge, was still much steeper than the 13 deaths the county reported a year ago.
The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 increased to 729 on Thursday from 719 the day before, the county reported, with 23% of those in intensive-care units. The three-day average for daily hospitalizations was 720.
The positivity rate ticked down to 1.6% on Thursday from 1.7% the day before.
Long Beach, meanwhile, reported two more coronavirus-related deaths Thursday, bringing the city’s death toll to 907. The city also reported 56 more coronavirus cases. There have been 51,902 cases identified in Long Beach since the pandemic began.
Pasadena reported no new deaths, but 13 additional cases. So far, 335 residents have died from coronavirus-related causes and there have been 11,113 confirmed cases.
Despite those sobering reminders how the virus’s risk, Newsom’s announcement about vaccine eligibility — and supply increasing — was another positive as the pandemic begins its second year.
“With vaccine supply increasing and by expanding eligibility to more Californians,” Newsom said in a statement, “the light at the end of the tunnel continues to get brighter.”
Staff writers Bradley Bermont and Hayley Munguia contributed to this report.