Officials watching trend of COVID cases in unvaccinated kids as LA County sees 14 school outbreaks
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- With schools beginning their third week of in-person instruction for the fall term, Los Angeles County health officials are concerned about a trend of rising coronavirus case rates among children who aren't yet eligible to get vaccinated.
"Case, hospitalization and death rates are higher among unvaccinated members of all groups than they are among those vaccinated," Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. "Vaccinated people continue to have rates for all outcomes that are many-fold lower than those unvaccinated -- they are four to eight times less likely to be hospitalized, and five to seven times less likely to die from an infection.
"During this period of high transmission, protecting those younger than 12 who are not yet eligible for the vaccine, is of utmost importance and we can all take as many precautions as feasible to limit risk of transmission."
Ferrer provided a list of safety precautions, including:
LAUSD confirms 1st COVID outbreak in district at Grant Elementary in Hollywood
The Los Angeles Unified School District on Monday introduced school-based coronavirus vaccine clinics, offering the shots on campus to any eligible students and employees.
Interim Superintendent Megan Reilly said mobile vaccination teams will visit every LAUSD middle and high school campus to deliver first and second doses.
Students age 12 and older are eligible. Reilly said students age 12 to 15 must bring an adult with them when they receive the vaccine, while students 16 and older may either bring an adult or bring a signed consent form.
At Woodrow Wilson High School in El Sereno, the first student to get the shot was 17-year-old Edwin Baca, who told Eyewitness News he was motivated to get it done with family in mind.
"Mainly because of my brother. He barely started school, I want to protect him since there's been some cases around," he said. "I just want to protect my family. I thought it was going to hurt more but it was just like another vaccine."
On Friday, Ferrer cited case statistics involving schools, calling the results "somewhat sobering."
She said that during the week of Aug. 16-22, 3,186 new cases were confirmed in schools, with the highest percentage involving LAUSD campuses, where weekly testing is required.
During the month of August, 14 school "outbreaks" have been confirmed, involving three or more linked infections, with Ferrer noting that half of them were associated with youth sports.
She said that average daily deaths have increased by 6% over the past week, reaching a seven-day daily average of 18 per day, adding that unvaccinated people are seeing the brunt of the deaths.
County officials have been reporting slight increases in cases among residents and staff at skilled nursing facilities over the past month, despite the relatively high vaccination rates in such facilities. Officials attributed the increases to the highly transmissible delta variant of COVID-19, which is blamed for the majority of current infections across the country.
According to the health department, 102 COVID cases were confirmed in skilled nursing facilities during the week ending Aug. 15 -- 25 among residents and 77 among staff -- along with three resident deaths. Over the previous four weeks, an average of 79 new cases were reported at nursing facilities.
The county has begun administering third doses of COVID vaccines for "immunocompromised" residents at nursing facilities. So far, about 150 such shots have been administered.
According to Ferrer, 74% of eligible L.A. County residents age 12 and up have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 64% are fully vaccinated. Of the county's overall population of about 10.3 million people -- including those under age 12 who aren't eligible for the shots -- 63% have received at least one dose, and 55% are fully vaccinated.
Correction: A previous version of the story stated that the Los Angeles Unified School District has had 14 outbreaks of COVID-19. The outbreaks are in schools across L.A. County, not LAUSD specifically.
City News Service contributed to this report.
