The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health has opened new vaccination clinics to provide residents with easier access to the updated coronavirus inoculation, officials announced on Wednesday, Sept. 27.
COVID-19 cases — including outbreaks in workplaces and schools — increased over the summer and into early September, but have remained relatively low in recent weeks.
For the weeklong period ending on Wednesday, Sept. 16, for example, the county reported an average of 475 new cases per day, according to its data dashboard, and a daily average test positivity rate of about 12%.
“Although our hospitalization and death rates are low, they are not insignificant,” DPH director Barbara Ferrer said in a Wednesday news conference. “Our own LA data for the past 90 days shows that people who are not vaccinated against COVID-19 were three times more likely to be hospitalized.”
The department has opened up two additional vaccination clinics — Ted Watkins Memorial and Obregon parks — to help ensure the latest COVID-19 vaccine is more easily accessible for its residents ahead of the fall and winter seasons, when respiratory illnesses tend to circulate most.
Vaccines will be available at those two sites from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
“We also have free vaccines on our mobile teams,” Ferrer said, “(and) 337 sites that offer the COVID-19 vaccine for children, as well as other childhood vaccines, free of charge.”
The Food and Drug Administration, meanwhile, approved an updated version of the mRNA COVID-19 inoculation in early September.
It includes an additional monovalent component, according to the FDA, which specifically targets omicron variant XBB.1.5 and helps prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death.
“We feel confident that this updated COVID-19 vaccine designed to target the COVID-19 strains that are currently circulating will give us an important and much-needed boost as we head into the fall respiratory season,” Ferrer said. “This new vaccine is estimated to prevent about 400,000 hospitalizations and 40,000 deaths over the next two years.”
About 81% of the entire Los Angeles County population have received at least one coronavirus vaccination, according to DPH’s data, which totals around 8.35 million people. Though DPH has dealt with vaccine hesitancy from some folks since the onset of the pandemic, the department has worked to counteract misinformation and general fear about the inoculations with various public outreach strategies.
“There’s a lot of demand right now and I think we’ve seen that every time there’s been a new vaccine, we’ve had a lot of initial demand — lots of people have been waiting almost a year now for this and they want the additional protection,” Ferrer said. “But there are 10 million people in LA County, most of whom are going to be eligible for this vaccine, so we have a lot of work to do to make sure that they’re getting good information.”
DPH’s community health workers, Ferrer said, have begun canvassing neighborhoods and attending public events to spread the word about the availability of the new vaccine and answer any questions folks may have about it. The department also conducts outreach at schools and community sites, and with its labor partners, operates a call center that’s open daily to help folks get the vaccination information they need.
“We think there are a lot of questions; we’re happy to answer them,” Ferrer said. “We encourage people to also go to their providers to get answers because it is important that people understand these new vaccines provide us with a boost in our immune system. That additional protection will be helpful particularly as we go into the fall and winter, when we have more circulation of viruses.”
Most people with health insurance can get the COVID-19 vaccine for free with their coverage. Ferrer, though, said that it’s important for folks with insurance to double check which clinics are in-network with their plan so as not to incur any charges.
During the height of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines were available for anyone who wanted one free of charge. But since the COVID-19 emergency ended at the federal, state and local levels in the spring, the vaccine purchasing and distribution model has changed, Ferrer said.
Now, DPH and other public health agencies are required to purchase their vaccine supply directly from manufacturers like Moderna and Pfizer. Previously, the shots were purchased by the federal government and sent to local agencies for distribution to the general public.
That means that in order to recoup the cost to buy the vaccine, DPH now bills insurance providers for inoculations provided at its sites.
“If you’re insured, you will be asked to provide your information so that we can bill those insurance companies and get reimbursed for the cost of the vaccine,” Ferrer said. “But there will be no out-of-pocket costs at any of the public health sites.”
Folks with insurance can also check with their providers, Ferrer said, to see what other locations, including ones that aren’t run by the county, have new COVID-19 vaccines available.
“I urge people to find a public health site where you can go ahead and get vaccinated,” Ferrer said, “or wait until your network sites are opened, so that you don’t incur those out-of-pocket costs.”
There are, however, 25 to 30 million U.S. residents without health plans — who often can’t afford the out-of-pocket cost for an inoculation.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched its Bridge Access Program, which provides free COVID-19 vaccines to adults without health insurance — or with insurance that doesn’t cover the full cost of the shot — earlier this year, to help bridge that economic inequity.
Long Beach, which has an independent health department, recently announced it will only provide COVID-19 shots to uninsured and underinsured folks at its city-run vaccination clinics in an effort to ensure their supplies are saved for folks who can’t pay for the inoculation out of pocket.
More than 400 LA County locations, including Ted Watkins Memorial and Obregon parks, will be participating in the Bridge Access Program, Ferrer said.
It could be another couple of weeks, though, until DPH — and private providers — have a enough of the new vaccine to go around.
DPH’s two new clinics are currently running on a supply borrowed from Mercy Pharmacy, Ferrer said, because they have yet to receive the supply the agency ordered directly from the manufacturers.
“Remember, we’re switching to an entirely new system where people had to actually order directly from the manufacturer,” Ferrer said. “The manufacturers and the distributors are having delays. We’ve been assured it’s not a supply issue; it’s a distribution issue.”
But more and more sites are getting their supplies of the new vaccine every day, Ferrer said, and DPH expects more than 1,000 locations across the county will have it available over the next few weeks.
Many privately owned pharmacy chains like CVS, Vons and Rite-Aid put in their orders early — and have already received their supplies.
“We urge people to check and not get discouraged,” Ferrer said. “People may be willing to wait a little bit longer to get (the) vaccination, and that also makes sense for some folks. But we anticipate in the next two or three weeks there should be no problem with supply availability in LA County.”
Visit vaccines.gov or tinyurl.com/LACvaccines to find a site offering the newest vaccine and schedule an appointment.
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