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LA County Could Reach Herd Immunity By Mid- Or Late July

a woman in a red shirt gives a man an injection in his left arm
Miguel Olazava receives his COVID-19 vaccine from pharmacist Michelle Hormozia on May 7 at a vaccination clinic setup by the Los Angeles Football Club.
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Frederic J. Brown
/
AFP Getty Images
)

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Health officials have revised their timeline for when Los Angeles County may reach herd immunity against COVID-19, pushing it back to mid- or late July. While there is no standard benchmark number for herd immunity — and some experts disagree on whether it's even a realistic goal — L.A. County officials are aiming to vaccinate at least 80% of the adult population by then.

Local officials need to give out a little over two million additional shots to achieve that goal, said Barbara Ferrer, the director of L.A. County's Department of Public Health.

"At the rate we're going, we expect that we can reach this level somewhere in mid- to late July. And that assumes that we continue to at least have 400,000 people vaccinated each week," she said.

Earlier projections estimated that most Angelenos would be fully vaccinated by the end of June, although at the time the county was struggling to get enough vaccines to meet demand.

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