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Majority Of Angelenos Will Be Vaccinated By June, Health Officials Project
RN Ebony Thomas (L) administers a COVID-19 vaccine to Cecilia Onwytalu, 89, at Kedren Community Health Center, in South Central L.A. (Apu Gomes/AFP via Getty Images)
The majority of Angelenos will be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of June, Los Angeles County health officials project.
But that's if the county continues to see larger shipments of the vaccine each week.
L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer says, according to the latest estimates, if L.A. County receives on average about 576,000 doses a week, about 80% of residents over the age of 16 will be protected against the virus in the next 12 weeks.
"Reaching such a milestone is possible with increased allocations, and it would dramatically change the trajectory of the pandemic here in L.A. County," she says.
Ferrer says the county is working to expand capacity at distribution sites, with the goal of administering about a million shots a week by the end of April. However, that plan will likely be impacted by Wednesday's news that 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were ruined by an ingredient mix-up. Ferrer said the county was anticipating that about 20 percent of its doses over the next three months would come from Johnson & Johnson.
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