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AUGUST 04-AUGUST 10, 2022 11
New Novavax COVID vaccine now available in LA County By City News Service
| Photo courtesy of Mat Napo/Unsplash
L
ong Beach health officials began offering doses of the newly approved Novavax vaccine for COVID-19 Tuesday, followed by the rest of Los Angeles County who started administering the medication on Wednesday. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the vaccine July 13 after it was found to be 90% effective against mild, moderate and severe disease in the company's Phase 3 clinical trial involving 30,000 participants
nated and protected if they haven't already. Vaccines are safe and effective at preventing serious illness, hospitalization and death." Residents 18 years and older can get the Novavax vaccine, which is a two-dose primary series, with the second dose administered three weeks after the first. Boosters are not recommended and the Novavax vaccine is not authorized for children 17 and younger. Long Beach officials said the Novavax vaccine will not be listed on the state's MyTurn
"Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the protein-based Novavax vaccine was developed without the use of mRNA technology." ages 18 and older. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the protein-based Novavax vaccine was developed without the use of mRNA technology. "We are thrilled to begin offering the Novavax vaccine to our community," Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said in a statement. "With more options available, we are increasing access to these life-saving vaccines. We urge everyone to become vacci-
vaccine-scheduling website until later in the month, but residents who would like to receive it can visit a city-run vaccine clinic. A list of sites is available online at longbeach.gov/vaxlb or by calling 562-570- 4636. Residents of Los Angeles County are now able to receive the vaccine at any Los Angeles County Department of Public Health vaccination location. Residents can also contact their provider to see if their
provider is offering Novavax. The availability of the new vaccine comes as the region slowly emerges from a surge of infections that almost prompted a new indoor mask-wearing mandate in the county. With case and hospitalization rates steadily dropping, the county announced last week it would defer imposing the mandate. The county could officially move from the "high" to "medium" transmission level
this week. The county's seven-day case rate -- while still elevated at 426 cases per 100,000 people -- declined from 481 per 100,000 the previous week, according to the latest data. In addition, using the most recent hospitalization data, Los Angeles County is experiencing a rate of 9.7 new hospitalizations -- suggesting that by Thursday, assuming rates stay stable or decline,
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could designate the county at the "medium" community level. While masks are not being required indoors, they are strongly recommended, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said. "As we are hopefully moving to the medium community level, we will need to continue to use commonsense safety measures to reduce community transmis-
sion to a level that causes less disruption, less illness, and less death," she said. "We have great tools and we will need to use them. Please be up-to- date on your vaccinations to reduce your chances of severe illness should you get infected; wear your mask indoors to reduce the spread of an infectious agent at its source, while also protecting the wearer from aerosolized virus and respiratory droplets.”
