Speaker 3: Thank you. Then we will do the vaccination report. And then we'll go on to the budget.
Speaker 0: Item 34, a report from Health and Human Services recommendation to receive and file a report on recent updates to state and local COVID 19 health orders, including but not limited to masking and vaccine requirements citywide America.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Mr. Mayor, and members of the city council. So we have a presentation for you tonight to really dove a little deeper into what's been going on with COVID. Kind of remind us all of a lot of the action that the City of Long Beach has taken and a lot of the leadership that we've exhibited regarding vaccines, regarding distribution, regarding masking and a number of safety protocols. So we'll be going through that tonight. And also, this is a receiving file item. So it's really just more about information and giving you a sense and letting you hear from the doctor, too, about kind of the things that we look at during the pandemic right now and what might be in our future. We're also going to be listening and taking, you know, the ability to ask questions and answer those. So I will turn it now over to Kelly Collopy and Dr. Davis to go through the presentation.
Speaker 4: Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Dr. Davis and I are thank the I thank you for this opportunity to provide an update on COVID 19 data and vaccinations as well as to share about movement across the country to implement vaccine mandates for patrons of specific business sectors. First, I'd like to share the many ways we've led as a jurisdiction and the ability to ensure vaccine availability across the sectors, as well as taking steps as a city regarding vaccine and testing mandates for our public sector employees. We were one of the first health jurisdictions to begin vaccinating first responders. We were the first health jurisdiction to expand eligibility and begin vaccinating food workers, educators, those over the age of 65 and those with underlying medical conditions. We had one of the largest mass vaccination sites in the state, serving up to 6000 people in a day. We were one of the first health jurisdictions to offer mobile and in-home testing and vaccination and one of the first municipalities to move toward vaccine verification and testing mandate for our city employees. One of our first school districts, community colleges and universities in the state to require employees to get vaccinated and test regularly. We're one of the first health jurisdictions to implement the indoor masking requirement and masking at outdoor mega events. We really have taken a strong stand to ensure the health and safety of our community members and employees around the COVID virus. First, we'd like to share a little bit of data. So this chart shows the average daily cases in light blue hospitalizations and dark blue and deaths in yellow. As you can say, all red me all remain below the winter surge for approximately the same as our first surge last summer. Average daily counts during the week of middle of August rose 164 cases per day. Just over six new hospitalizations. Hospitalizations each day, which is about 44 in a week and .14 deaths, which is approximately one death per week due to COVID in most. In more recent days, we are seeing an increase in the number of deaths. We we reported three today. Cases have been rising since mid-June, and 93% of those sequenced cases are the Delta variant. Our current case rate is 24.1 per 100,000 and positivity rate is 7.1%. Both are consistent with our February surge. This chart shows the case rates by age and you'll notice the much higher cases in yellow, which are the ages of 18 to 49 years of age. The ages 18 to 39 are among our lowest vaccine rates, at only 58%, receiving at least one dose. The L.A. County case rate is higher than in Long Beach, but the positivity rate is lower. We continue to see differences in impact of COVID by race and ethnicity. These are age adjusted rates that allow for a fair comparison between groups with different age distributions. It provides rates that would have been if the population had the same age distribution as the standard population. When utilizing age adjusted numbers, we find that our Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are approximately four times more likely than our white population to be infected by the COVID virus, nine times more likely to be hospitalized, and seven times more likely to die from COVID than our white population. For our Latino population, it's two and a half times more likely to contract the virus, 3.6 times more likely to be hospitalized at three and a half times more likely to die of COVID compared to our white population. And you'll see that our black and African-American population is more than twice as likely to be hospitalized or to die from COVID 19. The good news is we're seeing an upswing in vaccinations since July 15th. We're now averaging 622 residents per day for first doses. That's a 72% increase since mid-July. Currently, three quarters that 76% of our adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 65% are fully vaccinated. All of those eligible for VA. Of all of those eligible for vaccines, 73% have received at least one dose and 63% are fully vaccinated. That means nearly two thirds of all of those eligible for vaccine have been fully vaccinated. We are making progress. We know we have more work to do. I'll now turn it over to Dr. Davis to discuss vaccines and public health orders. The evening. Honorable Mayor and council members. This slide illustrates vaccination rate by age on the left and race ethnicity on the right. So on the left, it shows that the most highly vaccinated age group is those that are over the age of 65. That's that. Top line with 92.55% of those over 65 fully vaccinated. It drops progressively from there, with 74% fully vaccinated among those 50 to 64 years of age, 64% among those from 35 to 49 years of age. 51% fully vaccinated among those 25 to 34. 44% among those 18 to 24. And 12% for those 0 to 17, which includes a large proportion of individuals who are ineligible for the vaccine currently. On the right is the graph of percent vaccination by race ethnicity, which shows that many ethnicities are clustered around the 55 to 60% mark of fully vaccinated, with native Hawaiian Pacific Islanders having the highest percentage of their population fully vaccinated at 61%, followed by whites at 59%, then Asians at 57%, and American Indian Alaskan natives at 56%. Then there's a significant gap in percentage of fully vaccinated individuals, with 37% of Hispanic Latinos fully vaccinated and 35% of blacks African-Americans fully vaccinated. So this slide shows post-vaccination infections or what is commonly called breakthrough infections and gives some information about variants. The good news is that it's pretty uncommon for someone who's fully vaccinated to be infected with COVID 19. 0.34% of the 249,268 Long Beach residents who have been fully vaccinated have become infected with COVID 19 and only 0.14% of fully vaccinated people have been hospitalized due to COVID 19 and 0.00. 8% of fully vaccinated people have died due to COVID 19. The graph on the right shows the different variants that have been detected in Long Beach. There have been several different types of variants detected in Long Beach, but starting in late June, the vast majority of samples sequenced from Long Beach residents have shown the Delta variant. And as Kelly mentioned, 93% of the cases that had data was due to the Delta variant. The slide reviews vaccine effectiveness. So all three vaccines, the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines are safe and highly effective at preventing severe disease. They're all greater than 80% effective at preventing infection. The CDC is looking at the possibility of winning immunity several months after vaccination. They've all been shown to be greater than 90% effective at preventing hospitalization and death. So this slide illustrates how much more contagious the Delta variant is. Someone infected with the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that started this pandemic would be estimated to infect about two other people. That's over on the left. The Alpha variant or what was known as the U.K. variant, was 50% more transmissible. And so one person could now infect 4 to 5 others. And now the Delta variant is twice as contagious as other variants, and one person infected with the Delta variant can infect up to 5 to 8 other people. So the Delta variant is definitely more formidable than the original Wildtype virus. It spreads more than twice as easily than previous variants. New data is also showing that people infected with the Delta variant have higher viral loads than previous variants. So there's more virus living in their nose and mouth that can then be transferred to other people. I'm fully vaccinated. People infected with the Delta variant may also be infectious, be able to transmit the virus to others. So a high vaccination coverage will reduce the spread of the virus and help prevent new variants from emerging. As overall cases increase and the proportion of the population vaccinated increases, we can expect to see more breakthrough cases. But the bottom line is that the COVID 19 vaccines continue to be effective. Most breakthrough infections are mild, and the COVID 19 vaccines prevent severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths from Delta. So the vaccines are working as we would expect them to. Just more graphs about how the vaccine protects you from getting infected and being hospitalized or dying from COVID. So on the left, this is Long Beach data and the solid blue lines show the case rate among unvaccinated in the. The case among those who are vaccinated in the dark blue and then those who are unvaccinated in the solid light blue line. And you can see that the case rate is much higher in those who are unvaccinated. And then the dotted lines down there towards the bottom. So hospitalization rates among vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. And again, the rate of hospitalization is significantly higher among unvaccinated individuals. With the red dotted line down in those who are vaccinated with the yellow dotted line. And then the graph on the right is national data, and it's showing that if you're fully vaccinated, you are eight times less likely to become infected with COVID and you're 25 times less likely to be hospitalized or to die of COVID. So to summarize the data, all of the vaccines work to produce to reduce infections, hospitalizations and death, even against the the delta variant. The biggest reduction is in hospitalizations and deaths. We are seeing cases and fully vaccinated people and this is because there are a lot of fully vaccinated people out there. But when you look at everyone who's fully vaccinated, the chances of becoming infected with COVID are quite low 0.35% of all those who are fully vaccinated. There's also a lot of virus out there, and the vaccine is not 100% effective at preventing infections. So for all of those reasons, that's why we can expect to continue to see cases in fully vaccinated. Now just to review the vaccine related health orders that have come out recently. So July 26, the California Department of Public Health released a state public health order. Which required that in a set of high risk facilities, that all facilities must verify the vaccination status of their workers and they must test unvaccinated workers regularly. And all workers must wear surgical masks. So this order applied to acute care hospitals or medical surgical hospitals, long term care facilities, including our skilled nursing facilities, and then a whole list of other health care settings including but not limited to doctor's offices, acute psychiatric hospitals and substance use treatment centers, and then also to high risk congregate settings such as homeless shelters, adult and senior day health facilities and correctional and detention. And then subsequently on August 5th, another state public health order was released and this one required all health care workers to receive their first dose of a one dose regimen or their second dose of a two dose regimen of a COVID 19 vaccine by September 30th. And this requirement in religious and medical exemptions were allowed. If a worker received a medical or religious exemption, then they must test regularly. And the list there is who this what type of facilities this order applied to. And then on top of that, another order came out also on August 5th, which required visitors to verify their vaccination status or show proof of a negative COVID 19 test in order to visit an acute care hospitals or long term care facilities and skilled nursing facility. And then with regards to school settings, on August 9th, Obie USD announced that they would require vaccination verification of all school workers and regular regular screening testing of all unvaccinated workers. This was followed on August 11th by a state public health order, which required that all public and private schools must verify the vaccination status of all their workers and that all unvaccinated workers would have to undergo regular screening. Testing. In the state also updated some of their guidance and requirements around mega events. And they updated the definition of an indoor mega event or large event from 5000 participants to 1000 participants. So participants of indoor events of greater than 1000 individuals will be required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID 19 test prior to entering. So a summary of the orders as they relate to the city of Long Beach. Acute care hospitals, skilled nursing facilities and intermediate care facilities are required to verify vaccination status of their workers and visitors, test all unvaccinated visitors and require vaccination of workers and test exempted workers. Other health care settings such as doctor's offices, psychiatric hospitals, dialysis centers, etc. are required to verify vaccination status of their workers and to require vaccination of workers and to regularly test exempt workers. Other high risk congregate settings, homeless shelters, etc. are required to verify vaccination status of its workers and regularly test all unvaccinated workers. And public and private schools are required to verify vaccination status of its workers and regularly test all unvaccinated workers. In addition to the state orders, Long Beach has added that masking is required in all public indoor spaces. It's required masking outdoors for large scale events of more than 10,000. Participants and we've added Dennis and home health care agencies to the vaccine mandate. So given all of the state health orders, there's been a lot of movement in more local health orders and expanding some of the different verification and mandate systems to other to other businesses. So a number of jurisdictions have moved forward with vaccine and testing requirement for their employees. So the state, L.A. County and our city have implemented vaccine verification or testing for unvaccinated employees. Ours was announced on July 27. L.A. City and San Francisco are requiring all employees to be vaccinated with only medical and religious exemptions. San Francisco tied theirs to full FDA approval, which happened on Monday. So in ten weeks from now, all employees must be vaccinated. A number of cities have also implemented vaccine mandates for specific high risk indoor settings. All are including indoor food service areas, including bars, restaurants and other indoor food service establishments because mass must be removed in the space to eat and drink. Other cities are also including indoor gyms and fitness centers, giving patrons have elevated breathing and often heavy exertion, which can increase the transmission. New York is one of the more expansive with mandates, including a wide variety of indoor entertainment and recreation facilities. And you'll see the list there on the slide. More locally, Palm Springs passed a mandate for vaccines or testing for indoor spaces of restaurants and bars, as well as large scale ticketed events. The City of Los Angeles has directed their city attorney to establish an ordinance that goes further than all the other mandates I've seen, as it includes retail establishments in the mandate. This ordinance is still being written and we're watching to see how they define retail establishments. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors asked the Los Angeles County Public Health Department to develop a report with considerations and recommendations for possible vaccine mandates that port roads deliver today and will be discussed at next week's Board of Supervisors meeting. Their considerations include high risk indoor settings where masks are removed, such as restaurants and bars, as well as entertainment establishments where food is served indoors. They're also considering fitness facilities giving high levels of exertion and often ill fitting masks. The Health and Human Services Department has been tracking on all of these developments and reviewing and utilizing a number of different considerations. The first focus is on the science of the vaccine and transmissibility of the virus. What businesses would have the highest risk settings for people who are unvaccinated, particularly young people under age 12 who aren't currently eligible for vaccine? We also look at the level of transmissibility in the community, and right now that transmissibility is high. We also consider the risk to those who may be vaccinated but have compromised immune systems and are more susceptible to transmission. We look at the risk level of the facilities. We know that masks reduce transmission. But when we must when people must remove the mask to participate in the business, the protections are gone. These include indoor restaurants and bars. It could also include entertainment businesses who serve food as an ancillary service, such as a movie theater or a family fun zone. We also consider levels of exertion and the capacity to effectively wear a mask in most spaces. Fitness centers would be considered their. Other considerations to take to take into consideration are that support wellness but focus on equity and access to services for people. We wonder, you know, we look at whether the business is essential to daily living, such as a grocery store, a bank, hair salon, clothing store, etc., or a mask can be worn during the whole visit. We also look at equity considerations. We still have many who do not trust the vaccine nor the government. We continue to work closely with these communities and we are seeing progress. But moving forward with mandates, absent other options for people, it is an equity concern for access to essential services. Small minority owned businesses would also likely struggle first to be able to implement the mandate, and second, because many of their patrons may choose not to come to the business. If a vaccine is mandated. We're also looking at impacts on businesses. They'll need digital QR code readers to be able to look at the to be able to read the digital vaccine records and a person to check at the door. These have financial impacts. You'll also need the ability to mediate situations if someone is angry because they can't come in. The city's ability to enforce the mandate is also a consideration. We have hundreds of bars, restaurants, fitness and entertainment businesses and enforcement takes time and resources. And finally, we would support a regional or statewide approach. We think this is really important for consistency, to support understanding among our businesses, community members and for enforcement. We are actively reviewing data trends and mandates from other jurisdictions. Our goal is to work to address the high risk indoor situations, to provide the greatest level of safety for the patrons of those businesses, as well as employees of those businesses who interact with patrons while also taking into consideration the equity issues. Some jurisdictions are mandating vaccinations to push people toward getting vaccine, so they're incorporating a broader spectrum of businesses. We are working on an approach that focuses primarily on safety and addressing risk. We anticipate the possibility of an upcoming health order based on all of these considerations and what we are seeing in transmissibility and vaccine uptake. That concludes our presentation and we're open for questions.
Speaker 3: Thank you. I really appreciate the health department. I want to again, just think about the copy and copy, Dr. Davis, for not just the report, but just the incredible work since the pandemic started and even before. We have a great team at the Long Beach Health Department. We're very, very grateful for for this work. I have a couple comments and then I want to do have a question or two. And then any of the council also has any comments. We'll we'll we'll go there as well. But I want to and if I do that, Madam Court, can you reload the screen? I think the. The queue system is not up yet. There it is. Thank you very much. Let me just say a few a few just general comments. I want to just first note, and I think it's important to note when we have these discussions that there's there's there's real lives and people behind everyone that has passed. As of today, we have lost almost 970. I think we're at 969 individuals from our community that have died due to the pandemic. These are moms and dads and kids and sisters and brothers and grandparents. And it is and remains the largest loss of life that we've ever had. I mean, this amount of time in the history of our city and in an emergency this large, it's always important to center our conversations around those that are impacted the most. And I know I for the 969 families and the countless more that that are living with with deep health conditions or other types of trauma, please know that you are in our thoughts every single day and that we work and we and we struggle with these with these with these issues because we want to save every life possible. And it's important that the most important things that we can do. As it relates to the pandemic, is to try to save as many lives as possible and keep people as safe as possible. I also want to just say that the the 76% eligible adults number that we have that we hit, I think today, actually. Is incredibly impressive. And in light of of the horrors of the of the pandemic and still the work that is ahead of us, I just do want to thank our vaccination team for. For reaching that metric. And even when you look at the 12 plus population, that's almost it's on its way to 74%. I think maybe it's maybe in the mid 70 threes. But that is also an impressive number. When you look at just when you look at the 12 plus number and when you look at the 18 plus number, which is kind of which is the what the state uses as their as their state metric. It is very, very impressive. And I'm more optimistic than ever that we are going to hit 80%, you know, in the weeks ahead. I think that was a number that many of us hoped that we could hit at some point. It's still going to be difficult, but we are we are on our way there. And on the vaccination front, this work would not be possible, wasn't just the city's work, but we have countless community organizations, countless hospitals and clinics, community organizers, nonprofits that are knocking on doors, that are setting up pop up tents and parks, that are going to churches to get the vaccination vaccinations done. And I just want to thank every single one of those groups and volunteers, staff members that are out on weekends and nights trying to educate and vaccinate as much as possible. A lot of the the information that was presented tonight and a lot of the movement statewide has also been because of Long Beach. And I want to highlight that Long Beach has consistently been a leader on on on vaccines, whether it was being the first restrictions to start vaccinating our teachers and educators or the first to begin the grocery workers. I think about our. Dr. Davis, when when you gave the go ahead to start vaccinating people with disabilities that we were doing that before most of the entire state was. And so I think that that has also helped us have a a process that was accessible and continues to be accessible within neighborhoods. Imperfect, but still but still accessible. And I want to also note that when we when Long Beach Unified became the first the first and largest jurisdiction in the state to put in the vaccination mandate or the weekly test that prompted the very next day the state to do the same thing. And I'm really proud of Long Beach for moving forward and taking a hard step, but an important one with their mandate. Long Beach is and became the the only and largest jurisdiction in the state of California where every public agency had put a vaccine mandate in place. The city. The school district, the community college, the state university. And if you want to add our partner agencies like the county, you have a essentially all public employees within this city are under the vaccine mandate requirements that we have. And I'm very grateful and thankful to the health team for for doing that. I also just want to know that as we move forward, the one thing we also we have to keep in mind and this is really important and at least I believe strongly not everybody does, but the public good always trumps personal liberty. And the greater public good and public health have to be considered first and foremost greater than a person's individual belief about their own personal liberty. In that moment. I know that's a difficult conversation, but it's one that I believe strongly that the greater public good must always guide our work. And I strongly believe, Dr. Davis, that that that you have always kept in mind as greater public good public health question as you and the team have made decisions about, um, about our future. I'll also add that and I think you noted this at the end it but I think it's important to note. That right now there is an active conversation across L.A. County and the city of Long Beach about additional vaccine requirements for for businesses, as well as kind of a vaccine check or a mandate that would happen for folks attending certain types of businesses has been reported widely, of course, in the media. But I want to just make sure that at actually this call, if you if you can just respond. And I know that the city of Long Beach currently is having active conversations with L.A. County and are monitoring the discussions around additional vaccination requirements for certain types of businesses. Is that correct?
Speaker 4: Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 3: And I know that the that it could be over the course of the next week or so. It looks like a lot of those conversations around what could possibly be additional restrictions would likely come forward from the L.A. County health officer or perhaps their own health department. Is that something you're expecting as well?
Speaker 4: Yes, L.A. County will be discussing next Tuesday and we'll know the forward motion there. We'll be paying attention to that.
Speaker 3: And and as far as our own internally, we are as a as a city and as a health team, having active conversations about everything you mentioned as it relates to impacts to businesses, a safety for employees, equity considerations and how, you know, technology would be integrated into a decision of that magnitude. Is that correct?
Speaker 4: Yes, that's correct.
Speaker 3: Okay. Well, I just want to just share and I think I've mentioned this, you know, privately, I always do. But I will. I always have and I always will continue to support the decisions made by the doctors and scientists of the Long Beach Health Department that continued, in my opinion, to do everything they can to ensure that we remain safe and that people remain safe in the community. So I look forward to your additional recommendations and and your and continuing to keep the the Council and myself informed as to the best public public science and health and how we ensure that we protect as many people as possible during what is still a serious health crisis and pandemic. And so, again, people, please, if you are if you're not, you've been vaccinated, please get vaccinated. It's the best way to keep people safe. And please know that our I continue to talk to nurses and doctors every single day in our hospitals who are pleading with us to continue to do the right thing and to not strain the hospital like where we were, of course, in the spike during the wintertime. So with that, I have a this is a receiving file. There's no action that needs to be taken. Vice Mayor Richardson.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. So first, thank you, Ms.. Collopy and Dr. Davis, for your presentation. Something that stood out to me was the slide that showed how well we're doing with vaccinations and how the vaccinations are impacting what we're seeing play out with this surge, point 34% of those vaccinated have been infected. I think that's important to note. That point three, for only 0.3, 4% of people who have been vaccinated have been infected and have had a breakthrough case. That's a really small number. And .014 of people who are vaccinated have been hospitalized. There's less than 2% in .000 8%. Of people who have been vaccinated have died. I think first I want to offer my thanks to our health department for leading such a valiant effort on the vaccinations. And and I think we need to underscore the point that the vaccinations work. They're working, the data showing that they're working. That said, there's a bit further to go. The rates within that we've seen on some of these slides within communities that are not vaccinated, it's alarming. And if you just, you know, take that and apply it to who the people are that we see in the hospitals or the people who are getting the the breakthrough cases, the hospitalizations, the deaths, they're skewed toward communities that have not been vaccinated. And so we need to do all that we can to make sure that these communities we do all that we can to make sure that these vaccinations are happening, particularly now that vaccinations are beginning to get, you know , full approval from FDA. I also think I'm particularly concerned about children because children aren't able to be vaccinated. So quick question with the school vaccination mandate. Now, my understanding is that that applies to both public and private schools. Could you speak to how well the schools are transitioning, getting ready to implement this mandate, both public and private, going into back to school?
Speaker 4: Yes. Thank you. So the order came out, I guess, about two weeks ago now. Maybe ten days or so. So I think there's a lot of planning that's that's happening right now. We had a conversation with all of the schools this week. We had a did a discussion about what the new guidance is and offered our resources. And so I think that the schools are very well informed of what the mandate is and how to verify the vaccination status. And. And so I think just putting their plans together for the upcoming school year, which from what I could gather, it's kind of the next week or so, is when most of the schools will be returning.
Speaker 1: I think we we I'm particularly concerned about back to school. We've seen during vacation season or back to school, we always get a bump in numbers. And so we can anticipate that we know enough to know that. And so I would love to know how well and what we can do to make sure that we're supporting the schools, both public and private, as they get into back to school. And I think we should also expand that to anywhere that we think is child centered, should have a mix, have a vaccination mandate vaccination or a testing mandate because the children can be vaccinated yet and very vulnerable population that we really need to focus on. And then in terms of additional measures, I know that, you know, I'm paying attention to discussions. I know there's discussion about additional measures. My philosophy on this is a rather take a pill to offset a heart attack. And to me, wearing masks, getting the vaccination, that's taken a pill to offset a massive cardiac arrest. And so if it keeps our economy from shutting down again, if it keeps us from being overwhelmed in our hospitals, then we should we should look at, you know, high traffic areas, you know, sensitive areas. We need to make sure that we're I would be supportive of a mandate in those areas. Now, I also would be concerned about equity concerns, particularly around grocery stores and things like that. What I don't want is to not think about what the impact could be to food insecurity or if someone has another health emergency and they haven't gotten the vaccination. I don't want to discourage them to not go get an STD check or to go do whatever else needs to happen. So we really need to think about those equity considerations. But that said, I think you should explore additional vaccination mandates. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Allen.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mayor, and.
Speaker 0: Thank you.
Speaker 4: Kelly. And thank you, Dr. Davis, for always proactively responding to recent.
Speaker 0: Events and taking actions that are necessary and protecting.
Speaker 4: Our community. I tell you, we are just so fortunate that we have you as our city health officer. You have kept our community safe, and I'm proud of all of your work.
Speaker 0: I'm also proud of the mayor. I know he's.
Speaker 4: Been very active and just our fearless leader.
Speaker 0: And making sure that people.
Speaker 4: Get shots in those arms.
Speaker 0: The Delta variant.
Speaker 4: Is is pretty scary to me and and it's aggressive and we have to take meaningful steps to stop the spread. My dad, who lives in Florida and my uncle who lives in Washington State, were fully vaccinated and have both contracted COVID. And they are they're really sick. I'm confident that they're going to pull through.
Speaker 0: But I'm concerned about breakthrough. I mean, I see this number.
Speaker 4: .34, but I just.
Speaker 0: I just wonder.
Speaker 4: Like where this is going. I know they got their vaccinations early and in January and so is our elderly community. You know, are are they at risk? And so I just frankly, I absolutely want to see more stringent mask mandates. We absolutely need to bounce back and thrive as a city. And I think we have to do everything possible to make sure that that's happening.
Speaker 0: I am encouraged by the private industry.
Speaker 4: I know that they're stepping up and demanding.
Speaker 0: Vaccinations, and.
Speaker 4: I think these mandates work. It encourages people to get shots. If you want to go to a plane, if you want to go to a football game, you know, you have to show that you've been vaccinated. One of the questions I have for both of you is, you know, how are we going to use technology to our advantage? I'm a big Raider fan, most of you know that. But I've already been to several Raider games and and I'm required to use an application called Clear. And it scans your driver's license and it scans your card and it does a facial recognition. And it makes sure that you're the person and it gives you a clearance for so many days before you go to this.
Speaker 0: Event and.
Speaker 4: To ensure that you're that you're fully vaccinated. It was really easy to use. And so I wonder what we're going to be doing.
Speaker 0: And what technology that we're going to be.
Speaker 4: Using as we have big events like the Grand Prix that.
Speaker 0: Are coming into town.
Speaker 4: I just want to let you know that I will continue to be outspoken about the need to get vaccinated.
Speaker 0: And and protect.
Speaker 4: Our families. So thank you for what you do. I know how much the community health means to you and means to me as well. And I thank you for this report.
Speaker 3: Councilwoman Sara.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mayor. I want to add to add to what you shared. You know, thank you, Ms.. Cowpea and Dr. Davis, for the presentation. And to many of the neighborhood leaders, to many of the organizations that have continue and does do the work of outreaching and educating to our community members how to access the vaccine and and , you know, concerns around it. You know, my my and I know that the work continues on. You know, I live in the 90 813 area code, which has the lowest rate of vaccination, lowest rate of vaccination rate, which is at about 65.2% of the population and compared to the 76% of the adult population. And so certainly this is a equity concern for me. I just you know, I know that, you know, I know there's a lot done because I get a flier on, you know, am I am I gate where to access the vaccine. But I'm wondering I know that there are a lot of. Ways are approaching and making sure that we reach out to people in this area code. But I'm just wondering, what else do we need to do? What else can we do before we have to move towards mandating because of the various concerns that people have? Because I am also concerned about our vulnerable population. Those who are, you know, have their immune system isn't as strong. Two children under 12 that hasn't been vaccinated. And our elderly who may need a booster but haven't gotten it yet, that are also vulnerable. So I am wondering what else can we do to reach out to those in particularly not just in this area code and others that are still not moving towards the vaccine, getting vaccinated?
Speaker 4: We we you know, we continue to outreach and engage with everybody locally. What we're really finding is that it's a relationship, relationship and more relationship. And if you know someone or it went well, you know, those kinds of things. That's really helping. I think that the impact of the for a full approval on on Monday does raise some concerns and we'll be tracking to see if we start to see increases in first dose after that as well. I think that, you know, we are hearing that they're, you know, different agents respond to different things differently. And it is community and others. And so we are really working to to sort of tailor messaging, tailor engagements, tailor opportunity to be able to speak to that. So that's really what we're doing, you know, we're doing right now and we are seeing improvement. So, you know, it's it's it's slow growing for sure. It's slow going all across the nation, L.A. County, across the state. But but we are seeing improvements. And and so we'll just keep our eye and we'll keep on doing that.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And I do hope that we also continue to work with our nonprofit organization helping with outreach and engagement, as well as our faith based community leaders to get their feedback about, you know, what's really working and not as we're getting further information and also at what point, you know, also feedback if we do move to vaccination and want to make sure we check in with them. If that's the case, how do we communicate that to the community members as well in language as well as through relationships? Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, Councilman Munger.
Speaker 6: Thank you. Within the last three weeks, what are we seeing in terms of vaccination clinic turnout?
Speaker 4: The numbers are increasing. So we've been seeing, especially at the we're seeing greater numbers at the PCC clinics. So the Pacific Coast campus during the day and in the evenings, those numbers are increasing as well as at Cabrillo and some of our other sites. I think part of it also is, is that our many, many partners in vaccine, many of our pharmacies and providers and others. So as as we as we discussed in the slide, we are seeing about a 72% increase in daily and daily first dose vaccines going forward. So we are we are seeing we are seeing increases.
Speaker 6: In light of the recent lawsuit decision related to immunity being a component of access to universities versus vaccination. Are we working to have any partners with either the Red Cross or the UCLA antibody study or any of those so that people who have recently had COVID and might. Still carry that immunity would be able to demonstrate that immunity to us in a meaningful way. To help us provide that as a contributor to our I mean, I'm most concerned about our immunity rate more than our vaccination rate of 20% of our population had COVID. Depending on when they had it and what their immunity level is. What does that look like for us?
Speaker 4: So your question is, is what does our immunity look like in Long Beach?
Speaker 6: What are we doing to give constituents access? Like, I have a neighbor, this whole family had COVID, so in their mind they don't need a vaccination because they had COVID. So they're already immune. But there's no real. And like I was at Memorial today and they said they don't have any antibody testing available for their patients, but they UCLA has an antibody study. I don't know if Red Cross is doing antibodies on your donations, but it would be awesome to be able to say, Hey, go donate blood and you can see if you're still immune or not because you might not be. And then he and his family might all go get vaccinated.
Speaker 4: Right. Right. Okay, I got you. So the antibody testing really is a kind of frontier field. So we're just really not at the point where we can test an individual with an antibody test and be able to determine that they're immune. It's really looking at when we use antibody tests, we really look at the surveillance of an entire community because it's just not accurate enough on a 1 to 1 basis. Okay. Unfortunately, right now and then the other thing that they have seen, you know, everything is still evolving, but you can't get reinfected. Right. So it's felt that you can stay immune for about 90 days after you're infected with COVID, but then after that, you can get reinfected. They are seeing that it's you're more likely to get reinfected if you originally got infected versus you got vaccinated, like how you got your immunity. Right. So that's pointing to the importance of vaccination. So it could be that going forward, you know, they would give you a 90 day reprieve from vaccination. But since they're only giving you 90 days, really right now, the recommendation is that after you're done with your infection, you've done your isolation, that you should get vaccinated because that provides.
Speaker 6: And are we using that as a tool like, oh, you just got tested at a city facility. You're positive. It's August 1st. Please be back December 1st for your vaccination. Like, are we also doing that to individuals?
Speaker 4: We do. And we also pair the vaccination and the testing. So if you test, you know, you can actually get vaccinated, you know, if.
Speaker 6: You're negative.
Speaker 4: At the same.
Speaker 6: Site. I see. And. I appreciate all the different comments about personal liberty and different things. And I think that one of the the discussions that's that's out there is with parents and the confusion around. Long Beach Unified School District and testing versus and the different age groups and the students in high school versus not high school. And I think that if there could be some kind of. Pointing to sources like again, I talk about being in mommy groups. I was posting the Long Beach Unified School District link in the parents of Long Beach Group multiple times this weekend to try to point people to their website of places. They can find resources. They just think there's a lot of questions and people don't know where to look. And I don't know how we can help with that or what tools we can do to better partner with them. But I think that anything we can do right now, while people are really attentive to what's needed, could help us. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Councilman in the house.
Speaker 9: Thank you very much. And. Doctor, Dr. Davis and Dr. Cowley. I think that you guys have done a phenomenal job. I think that here in Long Beach, we are incredibly lucky to have you guys both leading our health department in this crazy, crazy pandemic time. As you know, the health and safety of our residents is of utmost importance to all of us here up in the diocese. And I can't stress enough how important it is for all of us to do our part in putting an end to the COVID threat. I'm glad that counts among Member Mungo as the questions about being reinfected, because that's been one of my concerns that I've had is do people get reinfected? So thank you for clearing that up. And yes, and I think that a lot of people who have had COVID really do think that they cannot get it again, that they're immune. So actually, that is a big thing, so that we can promote even more the the efforts of getting vaccinated and how important it is. Because I think that that's where it you know, we all have to do our part and get vaccinated and get tested and most importantly, wear a mask and anywhere possible. I think that those are really good recommendations, especially because we all want to come out of this already. So I think we we are very lucky, again to have you guys and thank you for that great presentation. And I know that we pull you one way and we pull you another way. So thank you for always being there, especially for community based organizations that are doing so much incredible work out in our communities and making sure that everybody knows the importance of getting vaccinated. And I think that that just so shows the power that we have when we work, all of us, together with the common goal of saving lives. So thank you again.
Speaker 3: That comes from Super Nat and then we'll go to the receiving in Provo.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I want to thank the Health Department for scheduling or the Saba Park clinics on Wednesdays throughout the month of August that Mary Sun has just mentioned, the CBOs. And that was huge in our district. 90804 United Cambodian community, a couple of hundred vaccines there, right on Dodson Street, Anaheim. And then Thursday night, Central Asia will be at or is up apart from 6 to 8 p.m. with a backpack giveaway and everything. It's just the perfect neighborhood to have an evening event like that. Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thank you, gentlemen. We have a motion any second to receive and file. Thank you. Thank you. There was no public comment on that item. Correct.
Speaker 0: Correct. No public comment on item 34.
Speaker 3: Great. Thank you. We're now moving on to the women's version of the budget hearing.
Speaker 0: Count on zero. Ocean escape.
Speaker 3: Okay. And if we can please read the continuation of the hearing, please.
Speaker 0: A report from financial management, a recommendation to receive supporting documentation into the record and conclude the public hearing and take the actions necessary to adopt the fiscal year 2022.
Speaker 3: Thank you. Before we go into the motions. We do. We have concluded presentations that we do have public comment. I want to come on that want to comment on the budget. So, Madam Kirchner, we have, I think, 30 individuals signed up. And so if you want to go through the public comment, please.
Speaker 0: Can the first five speakers please line up at the podium? Abraham Zavala. David Zamora. Jared McKnight, Kimberly Caballero and Victor Sanchez. Please line up at the podium. The first speaker is Abraham Zavala. David's another.
Speaker 3: Good evening.
Speaker 7: Counsel. My name is. Excuse me.
Speaker 1: David Sonata. And I'm speaking on behalf of the great eighth District, as well as partners of Parkes and the commission that I've been appointed to for Parks, Recreation and Marine. I wanted to come tonight to both thank you for the.
Recommendation to receive and file a report on recent updates to State and local COVID-19 Health Orders, including, but not limited to, masking and vaccine requirements and considerations for possible additional local vaccine mandates.  (Citywide)