LA CROSSE, Wis. (WXOW) - Bethany St. Joseph Care Center residents and staff received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning.
Administrator Larry Pupp said most of the residents and staff agreed to take the vaccine.
Eighty-six-year-old resident Ginny Dockweiler was one of the first residents to get vaccinated. She moved into the facility right before the pandemic started and is thankful that this could help her see her family sooner.
"I'm excited to soon be able to see my family again," Dockweiler said. "Maybe I can go out and get somebody to take me shopping again."
Pupp said he's hopeful regulations could relax by mid-February depending on Wisconsin Department of Health Services recommendations.
"We're finally at the point where we can start to get back to normal somewhere down the road," Pupp said.
Hillview staff is set to receive a vaccine shipment on Tuesday.
Frontline healthcare workers are the first in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine but some in the Inland Empire are declining it.
Health officials in Riverside County said about half of the workers at their 17 acute care hospitals have said no to the vaccine.
The question is: why?
In mid-December, frontline healthcare workers were the first in line in Riverside County to get the COVID-19 vaccination. County officials say many of them chose to get it, and many others did not.
Facilities already overwhelmed by coronavirus cases are preparing for even more patients in the wake of holiday travel.
"We also noticed that about half of our healthcare workers at our acute care hospitals were declining to take it at the initial time," said Riverside County spokesperson Brooke Federico.
Federico said frontline health care workers cannot be forced to get the vaccine.
But she also says the vaccines are not going to waste. Instead they are being given to the next in line, like firefighters, paramedics and EMTs.
"And that was sooner than we anticipated we would be able to offer to those groups," Federico said.
According to health experts, vaccine hesitancy isn't just an issue in Riverside County.
"To be really clear, healthcare workers were interested in getting this vaccine in general but many of them just wanted to wait for more information," UCLA epidemiology professor Anne Rimoin said.
Since September, Rimoin has been conducting surveys about vaccine hesitancy.She says initially, about 66% of healthcare workers didn't want to be the first to get the COVID-19 vaccination for several reasons.
"Politicization of the process, lack of information about the vaccine and concern about the side effects," Rimoin said.
But in a recent survey, Rimoin said the number had actually flipped after the election and after the FDA released more information about the safety of the vaccines.
"Sixty six percent of healthcare workers were wanting to get the vaccine as soon as possible," Rimoin said.
Rimoin said communication is the key for more healthcare workers to feel comfortable about getting vaccinated.
How Coronavirus Has Grown in Each State in 1 Chart
This chart shows the cumulative number of cases per state by number of days since the 50th case.
"We need to make sure these people have the information and if they have questions their questions are answered," Rimoin said.
Both vaccines will be administered in two doses and stored at standard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit).
The approval is a crucial step in India's effort to contain its coronavirus outbreak, which has infected more than 10 million people, trailing only the United States in total caseload.
The Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine maker, is producing the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine locally, having taken on a huge risk to manufacture the vaccine months before approval from regulators.
"It's a great day for India and the world, because this is going to be the most affordable vaccine, that will be equitably distributed as much as possible across the globe," the institute's CEO Adar Poonawalla told CNN Sunday.
But the vaccines, locally branded Covishield, won't be available to other countries until March or April, as the Indian government has restricted them for export, according to Poonawalla.
"This is not going to go to the private market, private hospitals and other places right now. We're given a restricted license to only give it and provide it to the government of India, because they want to prioritize for the most vulnerable and needy segments first," he said.
India's coronavirus vaccines are an important alternative for developing countries, which may not be able to afford the more expensive vaccines made in the West, or have the cold storage capacity to transport vaccines that require ultra-cold temperatures, such as the ones developed by Pfizer and Moderna.
In September, the Serum Institute of India pledged to manufacture and deliver 200 million doses for COVAX -- a World Health Organization vaccine alliance set up to ensure fair access to Covid-19 vaccines. But the export of vaccines to "low-and middle-income countries" may not begin until the restrictions ease.
Poonawalla said Covishield would be sold initially to the Indian government for $2.74 per dose -- roughly its production cost. It'll be priced between $3 to $5 per dose for export, and at $13.70 for the private market, he added.
Mass vaccination drive
The Serum Institute of India is expecting to sign a formal deal with the Indian government "imminently," and people will start getting vaccinated in the "next seven to 10 days," Poonawalla said.
The institute has already stockpiled 50 million doses of the vaccine ready for distribution this month, and is ready to send them to 30 to 40 government locations across the country. From there, they'll be distributed to the smaller centers and clinics that have been set up, he said.
India already has a vast, established network under its Universal Immunization Program, which inoculates about 55 million people per year. Analysts have said that means the country's health system is relatively well geared up for the Covid-19 vaccinations.
Ahead of the mass vaccination drive, the Indian government has also been recruiting and training additional vaccinators and ramping up its stocks of cold-chain storage equipment such as walk-in coolers and freezers, deep freezers and ice-lined refrigerators over the past few months.
Lack of data
India's drug regulator also approved Covaxin, the country's first homegrown coronavirus vaccine developed jointly by Bharat Biotech and the government-run Indian Council of Medical Research.
But the government has faced heated criticism from experts and opposition leaders for not revealing the vaccine's efficacy results or any other data from its clinical trials.
"Its use should be avoided till full trials are over. India can start with the AstraZeneca vaccine in the meantime," he tweeted.
Dr. Randeep Guleria, director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, agreed.
"I would say that we should in the first phase focus predominantly on the Serum Institute of India -- the Astra Zeneca vaccine, and the Bharat Biotech is only as a standby or a backup in case there is a surge in the number of cases," said Guleria, a member of the national task force on Covid-19 management.
"EUA for COVAXIN is different from COVISHIELD because its use will be in clinical trial mode. All COVAXIN recipients to be tracked,monitored as if they're in trial," he wrote.
In a news release Sunday, Bharat Biotech said its Phase 3 clinical trial for Covaxin started in mid-November, with a goal to include 26,000 volunteers.
"COVAXIN has been evaluated in approximately 1000 subjects in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, with promising safety and immunogenicity results, with acceptance in international peer reviewed scientific journals," the release said.
Vaccine rollouts in Asia
Across Asia, a growing number of countries have started vaccinations against Covid-19.
The Chinese government aims to inoculate 50 million people against Covid-19 ahead of February's Lunar New Year celebrations. The country has already administered 4.5 million doses of experimental Chinese vaccines since June under its emergency use program, which included frontline workers such as health care workers and customs officers.
The next step is to inoculate vulnerable groups such as the elderly and people with underlying diseases, before vaccinating the general population, officials said last week.
In Beijing, the municipal government started vaccinating targeted groups of the population, including frontline workers and students and employees who need to go overseas, on January 1. It has set up 220 vaccination sites across the city and inoculated 73,500 people as of Saturday.
Compared with the swift rollouts in India and China, the Japanese government has faced criticism over its slowness in rolling out the vaccines.
The first Americans inoculated against COVID-19 began rolling up their sleeves for their second and final dose Monday, while Britain introduced another vaccine on the same day it imposed a new nationwide lockdown against the rapidly surging virus.
New York State, meanwhile, announced its first known case of the new and seemingly more contagious variant, detected in a man in his 60s in Saratoga Springs. Colorado, California and Florida previously reported infections involving the mutant version that has been circulating in England.
The emergence of the variant has added even more urgency to the worldwide race to vaccinate people against the scourge.
In Southern California, intensive care nurse Helen Cordova got her second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center along with other doctors and nurses, who bared their arms the prescribed three weeks after they received their first shot. The second round of shots began in various locations around the country as the U.S. death toll surpassed 352,000.
Im really excited because that means Im just that much closer to having the immunity and being a little safer when I come to work and, you know, just being around my family, Cordova said.
Over the weekend, U.S. government officials reported that vaccinations had accelerated significantly. As of Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said nearly 4.6 million shots had been dispensed in the U.S., after a slow and uneven start to the campaign, marked by confusion, logistical hurdles and a patchwork of approaches by state and local authorities.
Britain, meanwhile, became the first nation to start using the COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, ramping up its nationwide inoculation campaign amid soaring infection rates blamed on the new variant. Britains vaccination program began Dec. 8 with the shot developed by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech.
Brian Pinker, an 82-year-old dialysis patient, received the first Oxford-AstraZeneca shot at Oxford University Hospital, saying in a statement: I can now really look forward to celebrating my 48th wedding anniversary.
The rollout came the same day Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a new lockdown for England until at least mid-February. Britain has recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus infections a day over the past six days, and deaths have climbed past 75,000, one of the worst tolls in Europe.
Schools and colleges will generally be closed for face-to-face instruction. Nonessential stores and services like hairdressers will be shut down, and restaurants can offer only takeout.
As I speak to you tonight, our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time since the start of the pandemic, Johnson said.
Elsewhere around the world, France and other parts of Europe have come under fire over slow vaccine rollouts and delays.
Frances cautious approach appears to have backfired, leaving just a few hundred people vaccinated after the first week and rekindling anger over the governments handling of the pandemic. The slow rollout has been blamed on mismanagement, staffing shortages over the holidays and a complex consent policy designed to accommodate vaccine skepticism among the French.
Its a state scandal, Jean Rottner, president of the Grand-Est region of eastern France, said on France-2 television. Getting vaccinated is becoming more complicated than buying a car.
Health Minister Olivier Veran promised that by the end of Monday, several thousand people would be vaccinated, with the tempo picking up through the week. But that would still leave France well behind its neighbors.
French media broadcast charts comparing vaccine figures in various countries: In France, a nation of 67 million people, just 516 people were vaccinated in the first six days, according to the French Health Ministry. Germanys first-week total surpassed 200,000, and Italys was over 100,000. Millions have been vaccinated in the U.S. and China.
The European Union likewise faced growing criticism about the slow rollout of COVID-19 shots across the 27-nation bloc of 450 million inhabitants. EU Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said the main problem is an issue of production capacity, an issue that everybody is facing.
The EU has sealed six vaccine contracts with a variety of manufacturers. But only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been approved for use so far across the EU. The EUs drug regulators are expected to decide on Wednesday whether to recommend authorizing the Moderna vaccine.
In the U.S., Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health commissioner in Columbus, Ohio, said demand has been lower than expected among the people given top priority for the vaccine. For example, the citys 2,000 emergency medical workers are all eligible, but the health department has vaccinated only 850 of them.
She said some people were hesitant to get the vaccine and wanted to see how others handled it. The vaccine also arrived the week of Christmas, and a lot of people were on vacation and didnt want to be bothered during the holiday, she said.
I think we all assumed that people would want this vaccine so badly, that when it became available, people would just come get it, Roberts said.
Roberts noted there has been no effective mass marketing campaign explaining why people should get vaccinated.
From the president on down, so many people have been touting the fact that were going to have a vaccine and get this vaccine out. But so many of those same people who were talking about it now have gone silent, she said. That could help if those same people would be more vocal about it.
Elsewhere around the globe, Israel appears to be among the world leaders in the vaccination campaign, inoculating over 1 million people, or roughly 12% of its population, in just over two weeks. The effort has been boosted by a high-quality, centralized health system and the countrys small size and concentrated population.
Hoping to spur a halting vaccination effort that has only given about 44,000 shots since the third week of December, Mexico approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use Monday. Previously, the Pfizer vaccine was the only one approved for use in Mexico.
On Sunday, India, the worlds second-most populous country, authorized its first two COVID-19 vaccines the Oxford-AstraZeneca one and another developed by an Indian company. The move paves the way for a huge inoculation program in the desperately poor nation of 1.4 billion people.
India has confirmed more than 10.3 million cases of the virus, second in the world behind the U.S. It also has reported about 150,000 deaths.
Bad data and poor planning have left people calling clinics, hospitals and health departments with few answers
FORT WORTH, Texas When Texas expanded access to COVID-19 vaccines last week, millions of people were left searching for doses and providers became flooded with calls with little to vaccine to give.
Brad Kaminsky lives in Collin County and is diabetic.
Im getting a different story everywhere I go because theres no uniformity, he said. Nobody knows.
He and his wife Doreen have called pharmacies, hospitals and clinics across the county.
They really just werent prepared, and every county is different, Doreen Kaminsky said.
Last week, Texas told providers to start the 1B group: those with health conditions putting them at higher risk of hospitalization or death if they contract COVID-19, and those over 65.
Many providers, though, say theyre still on 1A: healthcare workers.
Hospitals are frustrated that they were told to give out 1B, but they don't have any vaccine to do it yet, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said. Hopefully that gets better this week.
Jenkins said the countys registration website for COVID-19 vaccines averaged one person every three seconds when it went online Saturday night.
Tarrant Countys health department has registered more than 100,000 people on its vaccine website.
But each county health department counts as only one provider in the county. According to DSHS data, Tarrant County providers have received 59,875 doses as of Sunday to 83,250 in Dallas.
But Tarrant Countys health department has received about 15,000 doses to just 1,200 for Dallas County. Jenkins says they dont know why.
We're trying to get that clarification, he said. We want to get as much as we can because we need the vaccine for our residents.
Jenkins says the state is planning to launch a site for people to register for all providers in mid to late January.
A spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services said that the site is something that is a little further down the road than mid-January. We are working to stand up an event management system that will allow any Texan to search for available vaccines near their address and register to be vaccinated at DSHS-coordinated events. It doesnt have a launch date yet. Additional functionality may be added later. People in Phase 1 (1A & 1B) should reach out to their providers and their local health department to either make an appointment or get on the waitlist for an appointment.
The state that was supposed to be doing the website for everyone didn't have the website ready, Jenkins said. It led to the hospitals and the counties having to get together and scrambling, saying, OK, what do we do now?'"
Collin County has not shared a registration website but has asked people to call its appointment line: 214-491-4804. Denton County has a registration website but shut down the link after it was overwhelmed, and is currently working to figure out a waitlist system.
For now, the state says the best option is to contact one of the thousands of providers who say theyve been overwhelmed with calls.
The Kaminskys say pharmacies and hospitals seem unclear about when theyll move on to 1B because its up to each provider to decide when healthcare workers have been vaccinated.
Theyre not making it mandatory or putting any sort of urgency or timeline on it, Doreen Kaminsky said.
Jenkins says the health department and county hospitals plan to use a scoring system to prioritize 1B patients.
Basically, who, if they get COVID, is going to do the worst? In a variety of factors and try to give to those people first, Jenkins said. People with active cancer might get it, say before someone who is overweight.
Jenkins said it could be a few weeks before the countys health department hits that stage.
He says the state mistakenly started Phase 1B early thinking there were excess doses going unused because of data on the state site that was wrong.
Their website is slow to update and inaccurate, Jenkins said. The politicians that changed it to 1B didn't understand that.
Now, families across the state are scrambling for answers.
What Id really like to see is some really clear and concise information across the board, Doreen Kaminsky said.
With Los Angeles County now a leading hot spot of Americas coronavirus crisis, the statistics are hard to process. A person is dying every 10 minutes. And Mayor Eric Garcetti noted Sunday that a person was getting infected every six seconds.
But one thing about the pandemic has not changed during the darkest phase: those who suffer most. For those with the means to stay home and the ability and determination to avoid gatherings, COVID-19 has remained a relatively low risk. For people living in crowded conditions and who must work, its become an even more mortal threat.
Workplaces remain an area of growing concern amid new outbreaks at retail establishments as well as other businesses deemed essential. The massive increase in cases increases the chances of workplace transmission.
If you had a workplace before where you had 500 workers, there might be one person who was infected, so the risk of transmitting it to a lot of people was lower, Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, Los Angeles Countys chief medical officer, said Sunday. But now, with the prevalence of infection at 1% or higher, if they have 500 employees, maybe five are infected. And it magnifies the chances it can spread in the workplace.
There are seven Costco warehouses with clusters of confirmed cases of at least 15 infected staffers, with a Culver City location reporting 71 staffers having tested positive for the virus, one in Van Nuys with 50 and another in Woodland Hills with 42. Other affected stores are in Lancaster, Monterey Park, Santa Clarita and the business warehouse in Burbank, according to data released by the L.A. County Department of Public Health.
There are eight Home Depots in L.A. County with active outbreaks, including in Alhambra, Cypress Park, Downey, South L.A., North Hollywood, Panorama City, Van Nuys and Signal Hill, near Long Beach. Ten outbreaks at Target locations in L.A. County have been reported recently, with 217 staff members infected.
There also have been infections recently among staff at six McDonalds locations, four Chick-Fil-A restaurants and two In-N-Outs; at Best Buy stores in Downey and West Hollywood; the Nordstrom in Cerritos; Trader Joes in Glendale and North Hollywood; Whole Foods markets in Santa Monica and Sherman Oaks; and Apple stores at the Beverly Center, Glendale Galleria and Los Cerritos Center. Apple closed retail locations in California before Christmas because of the surge.
New outbreaks have been reported at Los Angeles Fire Department stations. There are at least nine ongoing outbreaks at stations that have infected at least 65 people.
There are also three ongoing outbreaks among people who work at Los Angeles International Airport, including at American Airlines and JetBlue Airlines. At least five people who work for LAX police have also contracted the coronavirus recently.
The virus is also hitting the entertainment industry, which stay-at-home rules have deemed an essential business. There have been clusters of coronavirus infections identified recently among workers at three Warner Bros. productions in Burbank Lucifer, The Kominsky Method and Young Sheldon. In total, 35 people have tested positive as part of those infections.
An additional 45 coronavirus cases have been identified at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, according to the county data. Twenty-three cases have been identified among workers at NBC Universal in Studio City and Universal City, including on the production of the show Mr. Mayor. There have been nine coronavirus cases among staff at Netflix Productions office in Gardena.
L.A. County public health officials have urged filmmakers to consider pausing work for a few weeks during what they called a catastrophic surge in COVID cases.
CBS Studios, Universal Television, ABC Signature, 20th Television, Warner Bros. Television and Sony Pictures Television have delayed production on a number of TV shows.
By Sunday night, an agreement had been reached by actors union SAG-AFTRA and groups representing film and TV producers and advertisers to recommend a temporary hold on in-person production in Southern California, according to the union.
Southern California hospitals are facing a crisis the likes of which we have never seen before. Patients are dying in ambulances waiting for treatment because hospital emergency rooms are overwhelmed. This is not a safe environment for in-person production right now, SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris said in a statement.
The outbreaks can sometimes represent poor infection control practices at businesses, but sometimes they dont. Earlier in the pandemic, officials said some outbreaks defined as three or more reports of infections among workers at a business over a 14-day period are more a sign of how widespread the virus is in this county of more than 10 million people, where the virus can be passed from social gatherings to workplaces and then to new homes a vicious cycle.
There is no doubt that a major factor in virus transmission is social gatherings, including holiday family events and big New Years Eve parties. LAPD and Sheriffs Department officials said they broke up at least 13 New Years Eve gatherings involving more than 2,900 people and arrested at least 90 adults on suspicion of violating the stay-at-home order.
One thing is also clear: Coronavirus risk varies by community. Latino residents are now dying of COVID-19 at 2 times the rate of white residents in L.A. County, a disparity that has widened since the pandemic has worsened in Californias most populous county. Compared with white residents, Black residents are twice as likely, and Latinos three times as likely, to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
Its also becoming increasingly likely that the virus is spreading more often at workplaces run by essential workers, who then transmit the virus to family or roommates at home.
That is particularly a concern in Los Angeles Countys densely populated, heavily Latino neighborhoods, which have some of the worst rates of virus cases.
I think it makes sense now, with the surge, that there are actually multiple pathways for people who are highly vulnerable to get infected, Gunzenhauser said. Between where they live and where they work, the risks are just greater for these individuals.
The disproportionate toll suffered by communities of color has been a problem since the beginning of the pandemic. But after the second surge of the pandemic faded in the late summer and early autumn, the disparity among Latino and Black communities compared with white residents declined. The new surge has made the inequities worse.
The progress weve made over the summer has completely evaporated, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. The gaps again have dramatically widened, particularly for Latinx residents compared to other groups, although all groups are experiencing increases in cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
Coronavirus case and death rates are also growing far more rapidly for people living in impoverished L.A. County neighborhoods than they are for people living in the wealthiest areas. Among the communities with the countys highest coronavirus case rates: South L.A., the eastern San Fernando Valley, Boyle Heights, East L.A., and Southeast L.A. County.
Experts say people who must leave home to work and those who live in crowded housing arrangements, often due to the high cost of housing, are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus.
Were the densest metro area in the United States. But were also seeing the household spread now, Garcetti told the CBS News program Face the Nation on Sunday. One person is coming home an essential worker there might be five, seven, 10 people in that household. And this is a worrying trend that the fatalities now are not just people with preexisting conditions.
Earlier in the pandemic, only a small fraction 7% of people dying of COVID-19 had no underlying medical conditions. Now, 14% of the deaths in L.A. County have been among people with no underlying medical conditions, according to data provided by Ferrer.
There are more people than ever not only passing away, but passing away without any underlying health conditions, she said.
Gunzenhauser said that the holiday season had been brutal and that L.A. County should expect daily coronavirus case numbers to rise well into January, which will add even more pressure at hospitals in crisis.
The holidays have been a major challenge, he said, because the human need to be with family and friends to celebrate these times is so strong.
Here is a more detailed look at coronavirus rates by race and ethnicity.
Latino residents of L.A. County have nearly three times the daily coronavirus case rate of white residents.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
Coronavirus daily case rate by race and ethnicity:
Latino: 1,696 coronavirus cases per 100,000 Latino residentsBlack: 752 coronavirus cases per 100,000 Black residentsWhite: 636 coronavirus cases per 100,000 white residentsAsian American: 519 coronavirus cases per 100,000 Asian American residents
Compared to white residents, Black residents are twice as likely, and Latinos three times as likely, to be hospitalized for COVID-19.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health)
COVID-19 weekly rate of hospitalizations:
Latino: 80 hospitalizations per 100,000 Latino residentsBlack: 58 hospitalizations per 100,000 Black residentsWhite: 26 hospitalizations per 100,000 white residentsAsian American: 26 hospitalizations per 100,000 Asian American residents
By mid-December, Latino residents are dying at nearly triple the rate of white residents in L.A. County from COVID-19.
(Los Angeles County Department of Public Health )
COVID-19 daily rate of deaths:
Latino: 16 deaths a day per 100,000 Latino residents Black: 8 deaths a day per 100,000 Black residentsAsian American: 8 deaths a day per 100,000 Asian American residentsWhite: 6 deaths a day per 100,000 white residents
Times staff writers Thomas Suh Lauder, Luke Money, Maloy Moore and Kevin Rector contributed to this report.
As of early January, Texas remains in Phase 1B of the coronavirus vaccination rollout, which means most people still cannot register to get vaccinated.
HOUSTON KHOU 11 News is closely tracking the latest updates on the COVID-19 vaccination rollout in counties across the Houston area and Southeast Texas.
Keep in mind that supply of all the approved vaccines remains very limited, and Texas frontline/health workers (Phase 1A) and older citizens as well as those with health risks (Phase 1B) will remain the priority for vaccinations for now.
Remember: you should not go to any vaccination sites unless you have registered and have been given a specific location and time/day to get vaccinated.
About the two approved vaccines (as of 1/4/21):
Where, how and when can you get vaccinated in the Houston area:
Well update the following list as we learn more from each county/city in our area. Most counties are still waiting for their first delivery of vaccines if not their second. Simply scroll down to your county to get the latest updates out of your community.
AUSTIN COUNTY
12/29/20 update:Austin County Judge Lapham says his county is "close" to getting vaccines available, and his county will be following the state's Phase 1A and Phase 1B guidance. So far, registration details have not been provided for others in the public who wish to get vaccinated. The judge also says new rapid testing centers are being put in place in Sealy and in Bellville. Read his latest statement here, which was posted to Facebook.
BRAZORIA COUNTY
Brazoria County has not yet announced any plans for public vaccine registration. You can monitor their latest announcements and COVID case numbers here.
CHAMBERS COUNTY
12/30/20 update: "We are aware that DSHS released yesterday that registered COVID-19 vaccine providers can start moving to Phase 1B. Please realize that many counties, hospitals, and facilities received COVID-19 vaccine much sooner than other jurisdictions (like Chambers County). The registered COVID-19 providers in Chambers County are working quickly to vaccinate all healthcare and frontline workers - which will enable us to move to Phase 1B. Once this happens, we will publicize this widely, as well as inform you how to register to receive vaccine. Please continue to social distance, wear masks, avoid gatherings, stay home when you are sick, and frequently wash your hands. Also, thank you for your continued support in health promotion and prevention in our community of friends, family, and neighbors." Read more updates from the county's health department here.
FORT BEND COUNTY
1/4/21 update:At a Jan. 4 press conference, Judge KP George said his county had not yet received its allocation of coronavirus vaccines. County leaders have been told they will receive the first vaccines very soon. When this happens, they will follow the states Phase 1 plan to administer the vaccine first to frontline workers and then later to those who are most at risk. In the meantime, county leaders ask the public to keep social distancing, wear masks in public and keep washing hands.
Registration:The county will eventually open up an online registration process for the public to sign up for the vaccination. Those details will be posted here at that time. (County leaders note that the registration process will not be first come, first serve you wont be number one in line just because you registered. The county is working with AccessHealthto set up the registration process. Those who register will eventually be given a time and location to get their vaccine.
GALVESTON COUNTY
1/4/21 update:The county is still waiting on its second shipment of coronavirus vaccines. As of Thursday, Dec. 31, Galveston County Health District began offering the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to those who fall under Phase 1A and 1B of the Texas Vaccination Plan. Appointments are required, however. Appointments can be made by phone or online, but callers are asked to remain patient. Those who fall under Phase 1 can all 409.938.2381 (when the phone banks are open) to register for an appointment after a new shipment comes in. Get the latest updates from Galveston County and view the vaccination forms here and get more updates on their Facebook page here.
HARRIS COUNTY
1/3/21 Harris County update:Harris County Public Health has been administering a limited supply of the COVID-19 Moderna vaccine to healthcare professionals and people over 65 or those with underlying health conditions. For additional locations on where to get the COVID-19 vaccine, please visit: DSHS Vaccine Provider Map. Get more updates from Harris County on this page: https://publichealth.harriscountytx.gov/Resources/2019-Novel-Coronavirus/COVID-19-Vaccine-Information
1/4/21 City of Houston update: "Appointments are required for our #COVID19 vaccination clinic. If you fall under Phase 1A or Phase 1B, please call 832-393-4220 for an appointment" You can get the latest from the City of Houston's Health Department and register for a vaccination online here.
LIBERTY COUNTY
Liberty County officials have not released an announcement about the status of vaccinations in their county. You can get the latest COVID-19 updates from the county on this page.
MONTGOMERY COUNTY
1/4/21 update: When Montgomery County Public Health has vaccine publicly available, a link to scheduling an appointment will be available here: https://mcphd-tx.org/
WALLER COUNTY
Waller County has not publicly announced that it has received a delivery of vaccinations. You can get the latest COVID-19 updates from the county here.
WHERE COVID VACCINE HAS BEEN DISTRIBUTED
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TAMPA Ronnie Oneal III has been waiting to make his case to a jury for close to three years. Facing the death penalty in the brutal 2018 attack on his family but legally presumed innocent Oneal has seen previous trial dates come and go.
Lawyers in Tampa are set to begin picking his jury next week. But now comes a new wrinkle: One of the prosecutors is in quarantine.
In a routine court hearing Monday, Hillsborough Assistant State Attorney Ronald Gale explained that his co-counsel, Scott Harmon, had been exposed to the coronavirus over the New Years holiday. Harmon, who attended the hearing via Zoom teleconference, said he is in a two-week quarantine, per the policy of the Hillsborough State Attorneys Office.
The prosecutors asked that Oneals trial be postponed. They argued that Harmon would be unable to assist in selecting jurors and preparing witnesses. If the trial went ahead as scheduled, Gale said, he would have to bring into the case a third prosecutor, one who would be unprepared.
But Oneals defense objected to a postponement.
Assistant Public Defender Carolyn Schlemmer pointed out that a number of other trials have occurred in the past few months. She noted that Oneals trial has already been delayed multiple times, and said its possible someone else involved in the case could still be exposed to the coronavirus in the future.
COVIDs going to be with us for a while, she said.
The judge also wouldnt budge.
I am sensitive to the fact that Mr. Oneal has been waiting to go to trial for a very long time, said Hillsborough Circuit Judge Michelle Sisco, adding that she was not inclined to further delay the case.
The judge suggested that Harmon be tested to see if he has COVID-19.
The prosecutor said he intends to do so. But even if he tests negative, Harmon said, he would still need to remain in quarantine at least until Jan. 15.
As of now, the three-week trial remains scheduled to begin Monday.
Oneal, 32, is accused of killing his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron, and their 9-year-old daughter, RonNiveya Oneal, and attempting to kill his 8-year-old son, Ronnie Oneal IV, at their Riverview home in March 2018.
Its expected that Oneals defense will center on a claim that he was defending himself after Barron attacked him. He argued as much last month when he invoked Floridas stand your ground self-defense law in a bid to have one of his two murder charges dismissed. Judge Sisco later denied his stand your ground claim.
As Dr. Louis Tran walked through the field hospital outside Arrowhead Regional Medical Center in Colton, he passed weary casualties of a COVID-19 surge with no peak yet in sight. Young and old, they slept on cots while receiving oxygen through nasal tubes.
One of the largest hospitals in San Bernardino County, the 456-bed facility ran out of intensive care unit space two weeks ago amid an onslaught of COVID cases across Southern California.
Dr. Louis Tran, left, speaks with nurse Emily Diaz in a makeshift emergency room under a tent at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
By now, the effects of the surge on hospitals have become familiar: Ambulances waiting up to six hours to offload patients. People suffering from other ailments, including one with kidney failure, getting treated outside the hospital for more than two hours before a bed opened up. Medical staff thinking about what other areas of the hospital, including conference rooms, can be used to treat the ill.
And yet, Tran said, he believes the worst is yet to come.
We knew there was [another] wave coming in the wintertime, Tran said. But I did not expect to have as many sick people who required ICU care like weve been having.
Hospitals across Southern California have been hit hard by the recent COVID-19 surge. Many of them are operating at peak capacity and are concerned about an even larger surge after Christmas and New Years gatherings. The feeling that the other shoe a larger and heavier one has yet to fall is pervasive among healthcare workers.
ICU charge nurse Elizabeth Koelliker works in an intensive care unit filled predominantly with COVID-19 patients at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
We are short-staffed because there are not enough nurses to take care of all these patients, said Vanessa Heaton, 34, a charge nurse. I just dont know, if it gets any worse, how were going to be able to handle it.
We hope that it slows down at some point, but were kind of scared of post-Christmas, she added.
Heaton worries that if the hospital becomes too inundated with COVID-19 patients, it will be harder to care for people having other emergencies, including victims of crimes.
People are still going out, theyre still getting shot or stabbed, and our hospital has to deal with all that on top of COVID, she said.
If ever a region was susceptible to faring poorly during a pandemic, it is one like the Inland Empire, with rampant poverty and high rates of people with just the kind of underlying health issues that COVID-19 preys on. And San Bernardino County has been more resistant to state mandates than L.A., with officials clashing with Gov. Gavin Newsom over the latest stay-at-home order.
For weeks, coronavirus cases in this region were growing faster per capita than in most counties in the state, according to a Los Angeles Times tracker.
Medical staff attend to a patient at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
Although the infection rate has slowed a bit in San Bernardino County, it is still listed as one of the 10 counties hit hardest by the recent COVID-19 surge.
Over the last seven days, there were about 744.4 cases for every 100,000 residents in San Bernardino County.
The situation is far worse in Riverside County, where in the last seven days there were 941.7 cases per 100,000 residents.
A Times analysis of coronavirus case rates in communities for which data are available found that, of the top 50, about half were in the Inland Empire, including Riverside, San Bernardino, Perris, Moreno Valley, Jurupa Valley, Bloomington, Barstow, Colton, Rialto, Victorville, Fontana, Highland, Adelanto and Hesperia.
Kareem Gongora, a board member of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice, was not surprised.
Those are all minority communities, he said. Theyre predominantly Latino, Black and low-income.
He said many people here work at warehouses and live in multigenerational homes under crowded conditions. The region is home to a booming logistics industry that has created tens of thousands of warehouse jobs.
Two staff members confer at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
But that same industry has also helped drive up air pollution, which has led to an increase in asthma rates, Gongora said.
We call this region the diesel dead zone because your increased exposure to particle matter worsens Alzheimers disease, heart disease and a slew of other diseases, he said.
At Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, a short walk from the medical tent, men were putting the final touches on trailers that will add about a dozen treatment rooms for COVID-19 patients. Twelve more rooms will be added in the coming days, officials said.
Ravneet Mann, a clinical director at Arrowhead, said they have been trying to plan for the worse. She said they have placed cots in conference rooms should they run out of space again.
If worse comes to worst with our planning, then well use the cafeteria, she said. We can go to the lobby also.
A patient is treated at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
On the second floor, a surgical intensive care unit was converted to a COVID-19 unit during the summer. At least 32 patients lay in beds; most of the men and women were intubated.
Mann said that if the situation becomes more critical, nurses may have to consider taking on more patients. Normally the ratio is one nurse for every two patients. Hospital officials say staff shortages have led them to alter those ratios at times.
But it takes a lot of work to care for even one COVID-19 patient whos been intubated. Nurses not only must monitor IV pumps but sometimes also have to flip patients onto their stomachs because it helps them breathe more easily. It takes about six nurses to flip a patient.
Around the corner, a 41-year-old man lay intubated. He arrived Dec. 12, and four days later his condition worsened. He recently was placed on dialysis after his kidneys began to fail, another complication brought on by the disease.
Thats our average age that were getting, Mann said. Theyre coming in younger and coming in sicker.
On average, patients are going into respiratory and cardiac arrest at least four times a day. The medical staff has saved people from dying during those medical emergencies.
But every day, at least two people are dying of COVID-19 here.
Thats the hardest thing, Mann said. We became nurses to make sure patients get better. To see a death every single day is just so depressing.
Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, like many other hospitals, is struggling with the surge in COVID-19 patients.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The hospital staff has shown resiliency during the latest surge, which has become the deadliest since the pandemic started.
So far, more than 26,000 people have died of COVID-19 in California. It is the third-leading cause of death in the state.
During moments of relative calm, nurses share tips about caring for patients. They discuss scheduling shifts. There are random conversations and laughs. And always, there is praise for the exceptional care they provide to patients.
There are some pretty amazing nurses here, Mann said.
In the medical ICU on the fourth floor, Elizabeth Koelliker, 36, the charge nurse, dashed from one patient to another, checking IV pumps.
Theres just way too many patients and not enough nurses and were trying our best, she said. You think last week was bad, and then you come in this week and its worse.
Koelliker arrived at 7 a.m. and had been unable to take a break for more than six hours because there was no one to take her place.
The state has sent 24 ICU nurses to the hospital. Although workers say it helps, its still not enough.
In the last few days, Koelliker said, some nurses have had to come in for some overtime just to help relieve other nurses for lunch.
We would not be able to do what were doing without the teamwork we have here, she said.
A nurse gets ready to check on a COVID-19 patient at Arrowhead Regional Medical Center.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
More help is expected to arrive soon as 75 Air Force and Army doctors, nurses and other medical personnel have been deployed to California hospitals, including Arrowhead Regional Medical Center, according to Army officials. Mann said the hospital will get 14 nurses, four physicians and two respiratory therapists.
It was just about noon when a nurse put on a negative-pressure helmet and a yellow plastic gown over his scrubs before sliding the glass door open and walking into a patients room. Outside, a second nurse held several IV drips that he passed through a gap on the side of the door. The nurse inside grabbed the plastic tubes, gave a thumbs up and walked over to the patient.
To limit exposure to COVID-19 patients, the staff has placed all the medication pumps outside the patient rooms. If healthcare workers go into a patients room, its often one nurse at a time. Mann said she is trying to obtain more negative-pressure helmets for her nurses.
If I can keep them safe, she said, they can keep taking care of patients longer.
Koelliker said it took a while for nurses to get used to not walking into a patients room without putting on the proper gear.
Were not used to not getting to a patient when they need us, so a lot of us found ourselves running in, she said.
Koelliker said she worries about what lies ahead. Shes afraid that nurses will be overwhelmed by the number of patients they will have to care for even with the extra help thats coming. She thinks about the phone calls shes had with family members who blame themselves for playing a role in the relatives condition. She worries about her colleagues.
Im extremely scared, she said. Its already bad now.
