Tuesday, Feb. 9. Here’s what’s happening with the coronavirus in California and beyond.
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We’re learning a lot about the long-term damage the coronavirus can inflict on victims, including breathing problems and chest pain. As the pandemic rages on, another lasting condition has emerged among COVID-19 survivors:
overwhelming medical bills that threaten to cripple them financially just as they’re trying to get back on their feet.
According to the county Department of Public Health, the county has received more than 1.28 million doses of the vaccine as of Feb. 4, and more than 1.05 million doses about 82% have been administered.
But breaking down those doses by ethnic groups showed a major disparity, with 25% of people receiving at least one dose listed as white, 25% as Hispanic, and just 3.5% as Black. Asians represented 18%. Shockingly, Black residents have received only 3.5% of all administered doses, highlighting a glaring inadequacy in the vaccine rollout to date, Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said.
Ferrer noted that since the early priority list for the vaccine includes health care workers, some of those workers receiving the vaccine may not actually be county residents. But when looking solely at residents aged 65 and over who are eligible to receive the shots, Black residents have the lowest vaccination rate of all racial and ethnic groups at 7.2%, and this is less than half the rate of white residents and a third the rate of Pacific Islanders.
Covid-19 numbers are getting better. But letting your guard down could be an open invitation for highly contagious variants to trample the US erasing the progress made.