Lello Tezema’s daughter, Semai Moussi, was one of the first children under age 5 to receive the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday, June 22 at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s dispensing point in Ted Watkins Memorial Park, a longtime vaccination site in South Los Angeles. Angeles. Angeles.
She was waiting for a safe opportunity to vaccinate her one-year-old child.
“The process was easy,” Tezema said. “Check-in was quick and I liked that it was outdoors.”
She said she understands why parents are hesitant to vaccinate their young children, but she did her research and was confident in her decision.
Doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 became more widely available in Los Angeles County on Wednesday after delivery delays that halted the rollout of pediatric vaccines.
Federal authorities have approved doses for children aged 6 months and over over the weekend. The approval covers vaccines manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Dr. Nava Yeganeh, pediatric infectious disease specialist and medical director of vaccine disease control at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, was in the park watching seven nurses administer the vaccine.
“We have been here and will be here every day to help people who want a vaccine (and) access to a vaccine,” Yegane said. “But what is most important today is that we are vaccinating children under the age of five, which is a group that has been waiting for the last 18 months to receive protection. This is a very happy occasion for us and for the parents, and we are very excited.”
County officials are conducting community outreach to inform the public about these latest advances in the fight against the virus through faith-based groups, community organizations and local health workers who are spreading the word.
Health officials noted that young children are at lower risk of becoming seriously ill or dying from COVID, but they said the risk is higher among unvaccinated children. They also state that unvaccinated children are at higher risk of developing multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C.
Over the past three months, unvaccinated children aged 12-17 are nearly four times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than vaccinated children, according to the District. Of eligible children in the county who contracted confirmed cases of MIS-C, 65% were not vaccinated, officials said.
Some Southland pharmacies and pediatric practices started dosing on Tuesday, but availability was limited in many counties. According to the county health department, delivery problems caused the delay, and on Wednesday they became more affordable.
The county estimates that vaccines will eventually be available at more than 900 vaccination sites. Meeting locations and times can be found online at vaccinatelacounty.com or in Spanish at vacunatelosangeles.com.
On Wednesday, the county reported another 5,575 cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases for the entire duration of the pandemic to 3,076,849.
Health officials said the total number of people who test positive is likely much higher than daily reports as many people rely on home tests, the results of which are often not shared with the county.
Eight more deaths from COVID were reported on Wednesday, bringing the county’s total death toll from the virus to 32,271.
The average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus rose to 11.3% from 10.7% the day before. The percentage is rising due to a decrease in the total number of people being tested, due to the fact that the summer holidays are leaving in schools.
The number of COVID-positive patients at county hospitals rose to 679 on Wednesday, up from 664 on Tuesday, according to the state. The number of patients being treated in intensive care stood at 67 on Wednesday, slightly down from 68 a day earlier.
City News Service contributed to this report
