Only 55% of the city’s firefighting force has shown up to receive a coronavirus shot, a lower number than originally announced, Los Angeles Fire Department officials said Monday.
Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said in a statement to The Times that the department “reconciled its vaccination numbers across various software platforms” in the last few days and determined that 1,842 of the roughly 3,400 rank and file firefighters have volunteered to be inoculated since shots started Dec. 28.
The department reported in mid-January that 60% of firefighters have been vaccinated. The doses have been offered each week to firefighters.
That leaves 45% of the force still potentially unprotected against the sometimes deadly coronavirus. While several hundred firefighters who recently contracted the virus have been advised to wait 90 days before they get the shot, hundreds more have thus far declined to participate.
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