Counties urging vaccinated people to tell stories to get ‘fence sitters’ to get a shot

In the battle against the coronavirus, three Southern California counties this week made a strong push toward increasing the number of people vaccinated, a weapon public health officials say is rapidly reducing the number of cases, deaths and hospitalizations.

Riverside and San Bernardino counties reached 27% and 26% of the population partially or fully vaccinated, respectively, while Los Angeles County, with a population of about 10 million, is close to having put vaccines in the arms of nearly 4 million people.

In addition, L.A. County announced Friday it is expecting to receive 340,000 vaccine doses next week — a 21% increase over doses received this week. Of those, 65% will go to vaccine providers in hard-hit communities: those in the lowest quartile of the Healthy Places Index and communities with high COVID-19 case rates.

Dr. Geoffrey Leung, Riverside County’s new public health officer, urged people who have been vaccinated to “tell their stories” in order to debunk claims that the vaccine makes people sick or is harmful. With a growing supply and a wider number of appointments, he urged “fence sitters” who are eli

gible to get a shot.

He said for those receiving the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which require a second dose, the first dose gives the receiver 60% to 80% protection from the infection. Riverside County could soon reach 1 million vaccines administered, he said.

Riverside County has a test positivity rate of just less than 3%, he said. Los Angeles County reported a 1.4% rate, down slightly from Tuesday and San Bernardino County has a 2.3% rate.

Los Angeles County saw daily hospitalizations drop below 700 for the first time since October. Riverside County had a 22.3% drop in patients from a week earlier. San Bernardino County saw the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital drop 26.2% from a week earlier.

Here are the numbers as of Friday, according to state and county public health officials.

Riverside County

• Confirmed cases: 293,831, up 124 from Thursday, averaging 123 reported per day in the past week.

• Deaths: 4,248, up 34 from Thursday, averaging 18.7 reported per day in the past week.

• Hospital survey: 136 confirmed and 27 suspected patients hospitalized Thursday, including 33 confirmed and five suspected patients in the ICU, with 18 of 21 facilities reporting. The number of confirmed patients is down 22.3% from a week earlier.

• Tests: 2,681,356, up 8,999 from Thursday, averaging 7,184 reported per day in the past week.

• Recovered cases: 286,380, up 106 from Thursday, averaging 166 per day in the past week.

• Vaccinations: The county says 924,974 doses have been administered, with 298,117 county residents fully vaccinated, as of Thursday.

• Reopening plan tier: Red (substantial risk level; some nonessential indoor business operations are closed) based on these metrics as of Tuesday:

• New cases per day per 100,000 residents: 4.8.

• Case rate adjusted for testing volume: 4.8.

• Test positivity rate: 2.7% (2.9% in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods).

• What’s next: To advance to the orange tier and reopen more businesses, Riverside County would need an adjusted case rate below 4.0 and a positivity rate below 5.0% for the whole county and 5.3% in disadvantaged neighborhoods for two consecutive weeks, and to have been in the red tier for three weeks. If metrics get worse, it could move back into the more restrictive purple tier.

San Bernardino County

• Confirmed cases: 290,315, up 160 from Thursday, averaging 130 reported per day in the past week.

• Deaths: 3,868, up 65 from Thursday, averaging 31.4 reported per day in the past week.

• Hospital survey: 127 confirmed and 28 suspected patients hospitalized Thursday, including 33 confirmed and one suspected patient in the ICU, with 24 of 25 facilities reporting. The number of

confirmed patients is down 26.2% from a week earlier.

• Tests: 2,668,421, up 8,017 from Thursday, averaging 7,106 reported per day in the past week.

• Resolved cases (estimate): 285,137, up 88 from Thursday, averaging 118 per day in the past wee.k

• Vaccinations: San Bernardino County residents have received 645,679 vaccine doses, with 184,773 people partially vaccinated and 233,783 people fully vaccinated, as of Thursday.

• Reopening plan tier: Red (substantial risk level; some nonessential indoor business operations are closed) based on these metrics as of Tuesday:

• New cases per day per 100,000 residents: 4.0.

• Case rate adjusted for testing volume: 4.0.

• Test positivity rate: 2.3% (2.6% in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods).

• What’s next: To advance to the orange tier and reopen more businesses, San Bernardino County would need an adjusted case rate below 4.0 and a positivity rate below 5.0% for the whole county and 5.3% in disadvantaged neighborhoods for two consecutive weeks, and to have been in the red tier for three weeks. If metrics get worse, it could move back into the more restrictive purple tier.

Los Angeles County

• Confirmed cases: 1,217,116, up 797 from Thursday, averaging 545 reported per day in the past week.

• Deaths: 23,056, up 34 from Thursday, averaging 48 reported per day in the past week.

• Hospital survey: 676 confirmed and 128 suspected patients hospitalized Thursday, including 170 confirmed and 18 suspected patients in the ICU, with 90 of 92 facilities reporting. The number of confirmed patients is down 18.3% from a week earlier.

• People tested: About 6,052,000, up about 11,000 from Thursday, averaging 8,000 reported per day in the past week.

• Vaccinations: The county says almost 3.8 million doses, including 1,232,348 second doses and 67,016 does of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, have been administered as reported on Friday.

• Reopening plan tier: Red (substantial risk level; some nonessential indoor business operations are closed) based on these metrics as of Tuesday:

• New cases per day per 100,000 residents: 4.8.

• Case rate adjusted for testing volume: 3.7.

• Test positivity rate: 1.8% (2.5% in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods).

• What’s next: To advance to the orange tier and reopen more businesses, L.A. County would need an adjusted case rate below 4.0 and a positivity rate below 5.0% for the whole county and 5.3% in disadvantaged neighborhoods for two consecutive weeks, and to have been in the red tier for three weeks. If metrics get worse, it could move back into the more restrictive purple tier.

This includes numbers from Long Beach and Pasadena, which have their own health departments and are typically at least a day ahead of the county in reporting their cities’ cases and deaths.