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Long Beach Expands Vaccine Eligibility To Residents 16 And Over With Underlying Health Conditions
Drivers check-in for a COVID-19 vaccination as the Long Beach Convention Center becomes a mass vaccination site in Long Beach Monday, January 19, 2021. (Thomas R. Cordova/ via Long Beach Post)
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More Long Beach residents are now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines.
Starting tomorrow, people 16+ with underlying health conditions will be able to get vaccinated — the city started offering vaccines to people with disabilities on Monday.
That news came as Long Beach Unified officials announced this afternoon that the city's health department has approved back-to-school plans for the district, which is one of the largest in the state. Under those plans:
- Elementary schools (transitional kindergarten through 5th grade) return on March 29
- High school seniors return April 19
- Middle school (6th through 8th grades) return April 20
- High school 9th, 10th and 11th graders return April 26
All families have been asked to choose between in-person and distance learning, with some of those surveys still in progress for the upper grades.
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Long Beach also started making shots available this week to more essential workers this week: city employees, transit and airport workers, and custodians and janitors.
"Everything is going in the right direction," Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said.
"We were averaging 740 cases a day, we're down to 31. And our positivity rate has gone from 17.4% to 2.3, so really dramatic changes."
State guidelines allow indoor dining when counties enter the red tier, but health departments can make their own decisions on when to allow it. The Los Angeles County public health department hasn't said yet if they'll allow indoor dining. Long Beach has it's own health department.
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MORE FROM LAIST:
- LA County Expands Vaccine Eligibility To Janitors, Transportation Workers
- How To Schedule Your COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment In LA (And Across SoCal)
- Bringing The Vaccine To High-Risk Farmworkers In Ventura County
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