U.K. COVID-19 Variant Spreads In LA; Vaccines Limited To 2nd Dose

LOS ANGELES, CA —The decline in coronavirus cases across Los Angeles is finally providing relief for the region's hospitals and morgues, but the outbreak still has health officials on edge this week amid signs that a high contagious variant is spreading.

Los Angeles County health officials Monday confirmed the fifth local case of the U.K. variant of COVID-19. The highly contagious variant is expected to become the dominant variant in the spring, and it has the potential to undo the recent progress made in slowing the spread of the disease. At the same time, troubling trends are emerging in the county's vaccination efforts. Namely, the region's hard-hit minority communities are getting vaccinated at dramatically lower rates than white and Asian populations.

Distrust of the vaccine remains higher among minority communities surveys show, but the disparity failures in the effort to reach the communities most in need of help, county leaders said Monday.

Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer called the disparities alarming. The county will be making changes to do a better job of reaching minority communities, she said.

"Shockingly, Black residents have received only 3.5% of all administered doses, highlighting a glaring inadequacy in the vaccine rollout to date," Ferrer said. "In the Latinx community, which has experienced the highest case, hospitalization and death rates, only 14% of Latinx residents (aged 65 or older) have been vaccinated to date," she said.

"We're going to continue to work with our community partners to ensure that we're not only getting everyone vaccinated quickly, but we're addressing the need to provide easier access to neighborhood sites and better access to accurate information about the vaccines," she said.

Of the more than 1.28 million doses of the vaccine administered in Los Angeles County, whites and Hispanics each nabbed 25 percent, Asians got 18 percent and Blacks received only 3.5 percent. Those numbers make Hispanics dramatically underrepresented among vaccine recipients because they make up more than 48 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Similarly, Blacks make up more than 8 percent of the population but less than 4 percent of vaccine recipients.

County Supervisor Hilda Solis didn't hide her frustration on Monday.

"We still have a lot more work to do," she said.

"This is completely unacceptable, and we will be sharing some of those changes in our vaccine rollout in the coming days to ensure that it is truly equitable," Solis said. "Frankly I'm disappointed, and I'm calling on all of us -- our departments and our medical providers -- to fulfill their responsibility to ensure that the vaccine gets to those who need it the most."

Community skepticism remains part of the problem but it doesn't entirely explain the disparity.

A survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 43% of Blacks said they would get a vaccine if they could. But in Los Angeles, "Black residents have the lowest vaccination rate of all racial and ethnic groups at 7.2%, and this is less than half the rate of white residents and a third the rate of Pacific Islanders," said Ferrer. If the Pew Research Center survey holds true, many Black residents willing to get the vaccine have been unable to in Los Angeles.

Though county officials vowed to do more outreach to minority communities, the disparity won't be quickly remedied.

The disparate numbers come amid a continuing overall shortage of vaccine supply. The limited availability of doses will restrict the county's five large-scale vaccination sites for the rest of this week to administered solely second doses to people who have already had the first shot. That means people still looking for their first inoculation will find it difficult to find an appointment, although some will be available at select other vaccine locations.

County officials said they hope to see rising weekly allocations of vaccine so more shots can be made available for those looking to get their first dose. Ferrer said the county hopes to receive more than 218,000 doses of vaccine this week, up from just under 185,000 last week.

The county is continuing to see a drop in case numbers, with just 2,741 new infections reported Monday, although early week figures tend to be artificially low due to weekend reporting lags. Long Beach reported another 247 cases Monday, while Pasadena health officials added 35 more. Those new infections lifted the countywide case numbers since the pandemic began nearly a year ago to 1,149,346.

County health officials also reported 93 additional deaths due to COVID-19, while Long Beach announced eight and Pasadena three, raising the overall death toll to 18,146.

According to state figures, there were 4,079 people hospitalized in the county due to COVID-19 as of Monday, roughly half the numbers seen in early January at the height of the winter surge. There were 1,193 patients in intensive care units due to the virus.

City News Service contributed to this report.