Sponsored message
Audience-funded nonprofit news
radio tower icon laist logo
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
Subscribe
  • Listen Now Playing Listen
News

'Grandparents Can Hug Their Grandchildren': LA County Endorses New CDC Guidelines For Vaccinated Residents

Truth matters. Community matters. Your support makes both possible. LAist is one of the few places where news remains independent and free from political and corporate influence. Stand up for truth and for LAist. Make your year-end tax-deductible gift now.

The CDC released new guidelines for fully-vaccinated people yesterday, giving them permission to gather indoors with other fully vaccinated individuals -- with no masks or distancing.

Vaccinated individuals can also visit one household that isn't fully vaccinated (if the people in that household are not at risk for severe cases of COVID-19).

L.A. County Health Director Barbara Ferrer endorsed the guidelines and explained to us what they mean:

"Grandparents are now allowed to visit households with their grandchildren, they can hug their grandchildren, they can have a meal with their grandchildren."

Ferrer also said having the vaccine doesn't mean you
can't get someone sick. She said we should take precautions when around those with health risks:
"If you're gonna visit a relative in your family who's 70-years-old and she has diabetes and hasn't yet gotten her vaccine, you'd need to keep your face coverings on, as would she during that visit, and you should ideally do that visit outdoors."

Starting March 15, Los Angeles County will begin offering the COVID-19 vaccine to people ages 16 and up with disabilities or underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible to severe illness if they're infected.

Ferrer says she's currently working with the state to figure out what exactly will be required for someone to prove their eligibility.

She says the simplest way to get the vaccine under this eligibility criteria will be if your healthcare provider is administering vaccines. You won't need to bring anything because your provider will already have your medical history.

Sponsored message

Or you could go to your pharmacy, if they're administering the vaccine, Ferrer said:

"Your pharmacy may have enough information on you to verify you're a person with serious illness and you might not need a lot of verification there, but I think in most sites people will need some form of verification that they're in fact eligible."

She says there will be multiple ways to do that, none of which will require having a government-issued ID.

READ MORE ABOUT VACCINATIONS:

Our news is free on LAist. To make sure you get our coverage: Sign up for our daily newsletter. To support our non-profit public service journalism: Donate Now.

You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our connected community. We are free to tell the full truth, to hold power to account without fear or favor, and to follow facts wherever they lead. Our only loyalty is to our audiences and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen our community.

Right now, LAist has lost $1.7M in annual funding due to Congress clawing back money already approved. The support we receive before year-end will determine how fully our newsroom can continue informing, serving, and strengthening Southern California.

If this story helped you today, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps LAist independent and accessible to everyone.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief

Make your tax-deductible year-end gift today

A row of graphics payment types: Visa, MasterCard, Apple Pay and PayPal, and  below a lock with Secure Payment text to the right