Hermosa Beach Coronavirus Update For April 22

Press release from the City of Hermosa Beach:

April 15, 2021

To help keep the community informed, the City of Hermosa Beach is providing regular updates featuring the latest news about COVID-19; related local updates; and how the City is working to meet the needs of the community and protect public health.

Walk-in COVID-19 Vaccine Appointments Available: Starting today, the L.A. County Department of Public Health is offering a limited number of walk-in registration spots at County-run vaccination sites through Monday, April 26 while supply lasts. Anyone 16 and older living or working in Los Angeles County can now get vaccinated without booking an appointment at the following locations (teens 16 and 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian). Registration for COVID-19 appointments will be completed on-site. The closest location to Hermosa Beach is The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood, CA 90305. It is open 7 days a week from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Other locations are listed in Public Health’s announcement. A reminder that anyone age 16 or older is now eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in California. To learn how to make an appointment, please visit: www.VaccinateLACounty.com (English) and www.VacunateLosAngeles.com (Spanish). Vaccinations are always free and open to eligible residents and workers regardless of immigration status.

Town Hall on COVID-19 Vaccines: The LA County Department of Public Health (Public Health) will host a Virtual Town Hall on COVID-19 Vaccines on Tuesday, April 27, at 6 p.m. The town hall will be streamed live on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube @lapublichealth. For more information and to submit a question, visit the Public Health Town Hall website.

L.A. County Remains in Orange Tier: L.A. County Department of Public Health this week reported that L.A. County remains in the orange tier in the State's Blueprint for a Safer Economy framework. In order to move to the least restrictive yellow tier, the County's case rate must be less than 2 new cases per 100,000 people and test positivity must be less than 2%. L.A. County's adjusted COVID-19 case rate dropped from 3.2 new cases per 100,000 people to 2.7 new cases per 100,000 in this week’s report from the state. The test positivity rate dropped from 1.5% to 1.2%, and in areas with the fewest health affirming resources, L.A. County’s test positivity rate dropped from 1.9% to 1.4%.

L.A. County Checking Businesses’ Compliance with Public Health Order: From April 12 to April 18, the L.A. County Department of Public Health (Public Health) reported that its inspectors visited a total of 1,641 businesses, including restaurants, bars, gyms, hair salons and barbershops, hotels, garment manufacturers, and markets. Inspectors noted some businesses had not completed and posted their protocols and needed to improve physical distancing safety measures. Inspectors noted 63% of hotels, 64% of bars, 74% of restaurants and 83% of hair salons and barbershops, completed and posted their protocols, and 81% of hotels, 88% of restaurants, 89% of bars, and 90% of markets were in compliance with physical distancing. Only 34% garment manufactures completed and posted their protocols and only 66% were in compliance with physical distancing safety measures. Overall, Public Health reported that the compliance inspections revealed that while the majority of businesses were in compliance, there is room for improvement.

Additional Variant Cases Identified in Los Angeles County: The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health continues to identify variant cases in the area. The two most commonly circulating variants of concern in L.A. County have been and remain the UK (B.1.1.7) and California (B.1.427/429) variants. Of the 59 specimens analyzed by the L.A. County Public Health Laboratory in the past week, 50% were the UK variant and 10% were the California variant. Most of the specimens analyzed were associated with clusters of cases, and where specimens were sequenced from larger outbreaks, the UK variant is currently identified more often than other virus variants. The Public Health Laboratory did not detect any additional Brazil (P.1) variants last week, although it is likely there are undetected cases of this variant circulating in our region.

The identification of these variants highlights the need for L.A. County residents to continue to take measures to protect themselves and others including wearing a mask, maintaining at least 6 feet of distance from those who do not live in your household, and getting the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as you can. All currently available information indicates that vaccines appear to be highly effective in preventing transmission, hospitalizations, and deaths, even with the increased presence of variants.

Vaccine Update: The L.A. County Department of Public Health (Public Health) reported that more than 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to people across Los Angeles County. Of these, 4,080,126 were first doses and 2,239,672 were second doses. Over 4 million people have some additional protection against COVID-19 and over 2 million people are fully protected. More than 70% of L.A. County residents 65 and older received at least one dose of the vaccine.

Countywide, Public Health reported that 711 vaccination sites are open and administering Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, including two new sites in Palmdale and Santa Clarita, the Palmdale Oasis Park Recreation Center and the College of the Canyons.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced last week that about 5,800 breakthrough infections have been identified nationwide out of 77 million fully vaccinated people; this means that about 1 out of every 10,000 people vaccinated test positive for the virus. Among individuals fully vaccinated, less than 1 in a million have died.

Currently, across the US, Public Health reported that about 1 in every 56 people infected with COVID-19 have passed away from their infections. Before vaccines were available, about 1.8% of people who were infected with COVID-19 died of their infections. Public Health said that if these findings were extrapolated across L.A. County, and everyone in the county was fully vaccinated, the County would have only 753 breakthrough COVID-19 infections and 8 deaths. This is why Public Health said that getting everyone vaccinated is so important.

Los Angeles County Update: The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (Public Health) has confirmed 36 new deaths and 439 new cases of COVID-19. To date, Public Health identified 1,230,362 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 23,736 deaths.

Latest Facts and Figures

Jurisdiction - Reported Cases | Reported Deaths

• Hermosa Beach - 989 | 10*
• L.A. County - 1,230,362 | 23,736
• California - 3,624,838 | 59,992
• United States - 31,666,546 | 566,494

* These numbers are subject to change pending further investigations by L.A. County Department of Public Health.

Additional Resources

Please continue to follow public health experts’ recommendations to avoid spreading the coronavirus including frequent handwashing, wearing a face covering, keeping a safe distance from one another, and staying home if you are ill. Public Health has issued the following guidance during this time of increased spread: If you are mildly sick, stay home for at least seven days or until 72 hours after being fever free, whichever is longer. Call your doctor if you are concerned and/or your symptoms worsen. Individuals who are elderly, have underlying health conditions or pregnant should consider contacting their providers earlier when they are sick. More information is available here.

We are monitoring updates and sharing information about the coronavirus from trusted sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, California Department of Public Health, and Los Angeles County Department of Public Health.

This press release was produced by the City of Hermosa Beach. The views expressed are the author's own.