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The site earlier this month saw massive lines as more groups became eligible to get the vaccine, but as of Monday and Tuesday, walkups were available with hardly any lines as staff waited to dole out doses at the Terrace Theater. As of 10 a.m. today, the site had open appointments throughout the day on the state’s MyTurn.com page.
The city on April 8 opened availability to all residents over the age of 16, while the state followed a week later. As of Monday, more than half of all eligible Long Beach residents had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
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One of the reasons for the inequity is that fact that people over 65 have been prioritized because they are more likely to fall ill and die from the virus, even though they contract COVID at lower rates. And in Long Beach, residents on the east side tend to be White and older.
Frontline health workers, police and firefighters were in the first eligible groups, followed by those over 65. Newly eligible groups are teachers and food workers.
Demographic information on vaccination rates, presented Tuesday during a City Council meeting, mirrors what’s happening elsewhere in the country.
Health officials are struggling to reach communities of color and densely populated areas where the virus has been most rampant.
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Yet the Century Villages at Cabrillo, a supportive housing community in the middle of West Long Beach with families, veterans, formerly homeless individuals, seniors and others, has largely avoided the high numbers of cases seen in multifamily housing settings across the region.
The Century Villages at Cabrillo houses 2,133 people, yet only 32 have tested positive for coronavirus since March. Despite it being located in one of the ZIP codes hardest hit by COVID-19 in Long Beach, that’s an infection rate of just 1.5%.
Long Beach as a whole, meanwhile, has seen 41,079 positive cases as of Tuesday among its 462,000 residents. That translates to an overall infection rate of 8.9% of the city’s population.