Respiratory therapist Robert Blas from Veritas Vaccines administers the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at a mobile clinic.
(Frederic J. Brown
/
AFP via Getty Images)
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Pasadena is poised to become the first city in Southern California to require COVID-19 vaccinations for its city workers.
The policy was announced at Monday night's city council meeting, and will apply to the city's 2,000 employees.
The requirement won't go into effect until the FDA gives final approval to at least one of the three available COVID-19 vaccines.
About 60% of city workers have self-attested that they're fully vaccinated, said city spokesperson Lisa Derderian.
"We have members of the public that have commented that if they do need to call for emergency services that they want the personnel that respond to be vaccinated. At this point, we can't guarantee that,” she said.
By comparison, the overall vaccination among eligible Pasadena residents is about 80%.
The new mandate comes amid a 240% increase in coronavirus cases in the city since the beginning of the month.
Indoor Mask Mandate
The city will also align with Los Angeles County this week, and reinstate an indoor mask mandate in response to the rise in COVID-19 cases.
The county's mask requirement went into effect over the weekend.
Fentanyl and other drugs fuel record deaths among people experiencing homelessness in L.A. County. From 2019 to 2021, deaths jumped 70% to more than 2,200 in a single year.
April Valentine died at Centinela Hospital. Her daughter was born by emergency C-section. She'd gone into the pregnancy with a plan, knowing Black mothers like herself were at higher risk.
Before navigating domestic life in the United States, AAPI immigrants often navigated difficult lives in their motherlands, dealing with everything from poverty to war.
