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County health director sees improvement in compliance

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Los Angeles County’s public health director said recently that indoor bars and large event venues have been in generally good compliance with new COVID-19 vaccination requirements for patrons, acknowledging that the adjustment to enforcing the rules can take time.

But overall, health inspectors have not reported any major issues, Barbara Ferrer said.

“I think it will take another few days, particularly at these large venues, because as you know, Dodger Stadium is 53,000-plus at these games, and they’re full,” Ferrer said during an online briefing. “There are a lot of fans and they have a lot of gates that are open. So we’re working closely with them and I want to give them a lot of credit. I think they’re doing their very best to be in full compliance.”

“And this gets easier as they’re able to work out any of the challenges that are happening at the gates,” she said.

Ferrer said inspectors also found high compliance at indoor bars, which are now required to verify proof of at least one vaccine dose for employees and patrons. Full vaccination will be required on Nov. 4.

“There are some places where there wasn’t compliance and a good understanding of how the compliance needed to work … but I do want to note that even in sites where we noted they weren’t in full compliance, we had no issues with the mandate,” Ferrer said.

She acknowledged that inspectors visited only a small fraction of the county’s thousands of indoor bars, but she was “pleased with where we are” with compliance from bars and event venues.

Ferrer also noted that officials at outdoor venues and the county’s two theme parks — Six Flags Magic Mountain and Universal Studios Hollywood — have reported that “the vast majority” of patrons are arriving equipped with required vaccine verification documents.

Ferrer continued to lament the slow pace of people getting vaccinated, saying only about 41,000 first doses were administered across the county during the week that ended Oct. 10. She said “the single thing that we need to do as a community to reduce our risk of another surge is we need to decrease our numbers of unvaccinated people.”

According to Ferrer, 79 percent of eligible county residents aged 12 and over have received at least one dose of vaccine, and 70 percent are fully vaccinated. Among the overall 10.3 million population, including those ineligible for shots, 68 percent have received at least one dose, and 60 percent are fully vaccinated.

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