Los Angeles County continues to vaccinate residents with plans to expand eligibility to all adults 16 and older by mid-April. But even as the lengthy rollout reaches more people, some communities continue to receive vaccinations at a lower rate than others.
Roughly three months into the vaccine rollout, L.A. County has expanded eligibility beyond front-line health care workers to more of the public as supplies increased. But new data continues to show areas of the county hardest hit by the pandemic have low rates of COVID-19 vaccination, while inoculations are the highest in neighborhoods that have seen relatively lower case rates throughout the pandemic.
County health officials on Friday said that vaccination rates for Black, Latinos and American Indians have not caught up to those of white Americans.
Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer with the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said the county “made progress” in vaccinating more people, including Latino, Native American and Black residents.
“However, significant disparities persist … with coverage rates significantly lower among Latinos and Blacks,” he said.
County vaccination data through Wednesday continues to show lower rates in South Los Angeles, the Antelope Valley, pockets of East Los Angeles, the San Gabriel Valley and the eastern portion of the San Fernando Valley.
But South L.A., parts of East L.A., the Antelope Valley and pockets of the San Gabriel Valley were among the hardest-hit areas during the coronavirus pandemic.
County COVID-19 data through Friday show Cudahy, a lower-income city made up mostly of people of color, has an all-time COVID-19 death rate of 327 per 100,000 people, and an all-time case rate of more than 19,000 per 100,000 people. About 19.3% of the community’s adult population was vaccinated as of Friday.
Other lower-income communities with the highest rates of coronavirus cases — such as Bell and South L.A. — have had less than 20% of their populations vaccinated three months into the rollout.
Meanwhile, high-income, mostly white Bel Air has had just two COVID-19 deaths over the course of the whole pandemic for a death rate of about 13 per 100,000 people, and an all-time case rate of about 5,238 per 100,000 people. As of Friday, about 46.7% of Bel Air’s adult population was vaccinated.
Other relatively wealthy communities, including Brentwood, Culver City, South Pasadena, Arcadia and Porter Ranch, all have had more than 40% of their populations vaccinated despite having some of the lowest coronavirus case rates in the county.
Cities in communities with higher case rates overall seem to have lower percentages of people vaccinated against COVID-19.
Prior analyses by L.A. County health officials have found places such as South L.A., East L.A., the Antelope Valley, pockets of the San Gabriel Valley and areas near the ports have had higher case rates overall but had the lowest vaccination rates.
While the analyses have a limitation in that cities have different proportions of populations eligible for the vaccine, officials recently said “the findings are deeply concerning.”
Even though many of the more affluent communities with lower case rates tend to have a higher percentage of people over 65 than harder hit areas, county officials say that disparities still exist in vaccination rates among those 65 and older.
Simon said that while vaccination rates overall are higher among those 65 and older, he said officials “continue to see lower vaccination rates among blacks, Latinos, and American Indians and Alaska Natives.”
“For example, Rancho Park has a vaccination rate of 90% among 65 and older, and many other affluent areas have rates above 80%,” Simon said. “While many of the lower-income communities have rates that fall below 50% vaccination rate.”
With vaccine eligibility set to expand to all adults in L.A. County by mid-April, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said that the county will “remain laser focused on ensuring an equitable distribution of vaccines.”
Next week, the public health department is expecting to receive 340,000 vaccine doses — 21% more than the supply received this past week. Of the doses the county anticipates receiving next week, 65% will go to vaccine providers located in vulnerable and hard-hit communities, specifically areas that fall under the lowest quartile of the state’s Healthy Places Index, as well areas that have had the highest COVID-19 case rates.
“The more people that are vaccinated, the closer we are to ending the horrific death toll associated with the pandemic,” Ferrer said. “We know the virus does not respect borders and we remain quite concerned with reports of rising cases of COVID-19 and hospitalizations in a growing number of states.”
