LA County ramping up mobile vaccination efforts ahead of state's June 15 reopening
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Los Angeles County continues its push to get as many people vaccinated ahead of the state fully reopening next week.
The L.A. County Department of Health is reporting COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are continuing to decline. With those numbers spiraling down, the county is moving ahead and preparing for the reopening of the county and state June 15.
Medical teams are fanning out countywide into communities to inoculate more residents.
"This week, there will be 237 mobile vaccination sites. This is the highest number of sites we've had in a one week period to date," said L.A. County Health Officer Dr. Muntu Davis. "We're directing a lot of resources to our mobile vaccination sites out of a real sense of urgency to get as many residents vaccinated as we can before June 15th and beyond."
The county has administered nearly 10 million doses of vaccines thus far, and is hoping to meet President Joe Biden's vaccination goal by administering millions more by Independence Day. Biden wants at least 70% of Americans to receive at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by July 4.
RELATED: California to remove all capacity limits, physical distancing requirements starting June 15
While most restrictions will go away on June 15, county health officials stressed that workplaces will still be subject to rules imposed by the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. A Cal-OSHA board on Thursday approved recommendations that would continue to mandate masks for everyone at worksites, unless everyone in the room is vaccinated. If anyone in the room is not vaccinated, masks will be required for everyone, regardless of vaccine status.
The new rules, which still need final state approval, would allow businesses to do away with physical distancing and partitions/barriers, if employers make respirators such as N95 masks available to unvaccinated workers.
The workplace rules have drawn criticism for running counter to guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has proclaimed that vaccinated people no longer need to wear masks in most situations. If given final state approval, however, the Cal-OSHA rules will take precedence.
Davis said Cal/OSHA determined that fully vaccinated workers can go to work even after a close contact with a person who has COVID-19.
City News Service contributed to this report.
