LA County Begins Offering 2nd Booster Doses of COVID Vaccine, City Has No Firm Plans Yet

Los Angeles County health officials and other providers began offering second booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine to eligible residents Wednesday, while the City of Pasadena said it may follow suit next week.

The additional boosters were approved Tuesday by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The second boosters of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were authorized for people who are aged 50 and over, and who received their last booster shot at least four months ago.

Boosters are also available for younger people who are considered immunocompromised and at higher risk of severe illness from the virus.

Many pharmacies were also making the secondary boosters available. Rite Aid announced that all of its locations in California are offering the shots.

Information about the County’s sites where the secondary booster doses available are available online at VaccinateLACounty.com.

The rolling average daily rate of people testing positive for the virus was 0.9% in Los Angeles County as of Wednesday, a slight rise from 0.7% over the past two weeks.

Last week, the department reported an uptick in COVID infections attributed to the BA.2, an offshoot of the Omicron variant that spurred a winter surge in cases and hospitalizations.

According to the county, the BA.2 sub-variant accounted for 14.7% of all specially sequenced cases from the week ending March 5 — more than double the 6.4% rate from the previous week. Experts have suggested that BA.2 is at least 30% more contagious than the Omicron variant, which was already substantially more easily spread than the original COVID-19 virus.

According to the county, as of last Sunday, 83% of eligible county residents aged 5 and older had received at least one dose of COVID vaccine, and 75% were fully vaccinated. However, only 30% of children aged 5-11 have been fully vaccinated, the lowest rate of any age group.

Among Black residents, only 55.4% are fully vaccinated, along with 58.9% of Latina/o residents, compared to 73% of white residents and 82% of Asians.