LA County Vaccination Sites to Start Administering Novavax Vaccine Beginning Wednesday, August 3

LOS ANGELES, CA, August 1 – LA County vaccination sites will start administering the Novavax vaccine beginning Wednesday, August 3. The Novavax vaccine was recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month. Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Novavax vaccine was developed without the use of mRNA technology. The vaccine was found to be 90% effective against mild, moderate, and severe disease in the company’s Phase 3 clinical trial involving 30,000 participants ages 18 and older.

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 currently not recommended and the Novavax vaccine is not yet authorized for children 17 and younger.

Residents can walk into any Public Health vaccination location to receive the vaccine. Residents can also contact their provider to see if their provider is offering Novavax.

As CDC Community Level Data Improves, Indoor Masking Strongly Advised to Protect Most Vulnerable Residents.

Although improvements in our COVID metrics are hopeful, given the continued high rate of transmission, wearing masks indoors in public spaces is strongly encouraged to reduce risk and limit spread.

As a reminder, masking is still required in many settings throughout the county under the existing state and LA County Health Officer orders.

Masks are required in all health care settings, on public transportation, such as buses and trains, and transit hubs, as well as at long-term care settings, shelters, cooling centers, and correctional facilities. Masks are required for 10 days for anyone recently diagnosed with, or exposed to, COVID-19, when they are around other people.

And while LA County still is in this surge, indoor masking is very strongly advised everywhere else: in shared office spaces, in other work settings like manufacturing, in retail settings (whether you work there or are shopping), indoors at schools, and when you are in any indoor space, unless you are actively eating or drinking.

As a reminder, businesses and institutions are permitted to require indoor masking while people are on their premises, and this remains a sensible action to take during times of high transmission.