Ultra-low temperature freezers are required to store some COVID-19 vaccines. (photo courtesy of Cedars-Sinai)

With the availability of a COVID-19 vaccine possibly only weeks away, local officials and hospital administrators are taking steps to ensure they are ready for the monumental task of distributing the potentially life-saving inoculations.

With cases of the coronavirus surging among Los Angeles County’s population, the task of preparing for vaccinations is being coupled with preparations for preventing the health care system from being overwhelmed. On Dec. 1, Los Angeles City Councilman Paul Koretz, 5th District, introduced a motion calling for the city Emergency Management Department to work closely with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health to develop contingency plans if the virus continues to spread. The motion followed a previous measure introduced by Koretz on Nov. 25 calling for city departments to develop plans to help facilitate vaccine distribution when one becomes available.

“We need to make sure that the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine is met with a carefully planned storage and distribution strategy to get it immediately to those who need it most and made readily available to as many Angelenos as possible,” Koretz said. “[We need] to determine what plans are in place now, what’s missing, and to mobilize a strategy that can be executed immediately upon delivery of these life-saving vaccines.”

Koretz’s spokeswoman Alison Simard said the councilman and his staff have been in close contact with hospitals to determine needs. She said hospital administrators have assured they are prepared and able to handle the current surge in coronavirus cases, but the councilman wants the city to be prepared for anything.

“We don’t want the hospitals overrun. The councilman is very concerned at this point,” Simard said. “We have had some calls with Cedars and Kaiser to get a sense of the state of how they are operating, and we’ve been told that they are around 75% of capacity. The main thing is that they have all the resources they need right now. There are still a lot of questions about what the impact is going to be.”

Koretz’s motions called for reports back before the council reconsiders them, and he is hoping to learn about plans as soon as possible. The surge in COVID-19 cases has added an extra sense of urgency, Simard said. Included in the motions is a request to study using the former St. Vincent Medical Center as a surge hospital – a role it served during the spring and early summer.

At Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, administrators and staff are treating an increased number of coronavirus cases, although exact numbers were not available. The hospital is prepared, as it has had time to amass equipment and protective gear that enables improved outcomes for patients, administrators said.

“One of the benefits that we’ve had is some time to prepare since this pandemic began,” said Jeff Smith, chief operating officer for Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. “We now know much more about this virus, about how it spreads and how we can protect both patients and staff through the proper use of personal protective equipment. We are well prepared. We can keep our patients and our staff safe at this time.”

Kaiser Permanente, which operates the Los Angeles Medical Center on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, also said preparations are underway to address the surge in cases.

“As COVID-19 cases rise rapidly across most of the United States, Kaiser Permanente continues to closely monitor the rate of positive testing in all of the communities we serve,” read a statement issued by Kaiser Permanente and provided by spokesman Terry Kanakri. “Nine months into this pandemic, we along with the rest of the healthcare industry have some advantages that didn’t exist before. These include new treatments and more knowledge about this novel virus, leading to more effective inpatient and outpatient care, more robust testing and contact-tracing compared to prior surges in the early spring and summer [and] a more stable supply chain for masks and other personal protective equipment compared to the start of the pandemic. Kaiser Permanente Southern California has retained expanded capabilities to quickly increase treatment space, staff and supplies to meet the demands of COVID-19. This includes continuous monitoring of the supplies on hand across our system and processes for quickly re-supplying any of our medical centers that may run low. We isolate COVID-19 patients and treatment from other patients so all can safely receive the care they need.”

Cedars-Sinai has been selected as a vaccine distribution center by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. (photo by Edwin Folven)

Cedars-Sinai has been selected as a vaccine distribution center by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health because it has capacity to store vaccines, hospital spokeswoman Marni Usheroff said. In anticipation of a vaccine, the hospital is ensuring it has capacity to accept, store and distribute them. Plans for distribution are still being formulated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the county health department and details have not been made public. It is anticipated that health care workers and first responders will receive the first doses.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not yet approved a vaccine. On Dec. 2, the United Kingdom, however, gave emergency-use authorization to vaccine shots created by Pfizer and BioNTech. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee plans to meet on Dec. 10 to consider a request for emergency use authorization of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The commission also plans to consider another COVID-19 vaccine created by Moderna on Dec. 17.

“The FDA recognizes that transparency and dialogue are critical for the public to have confidence in COVID-19 vaccines. I want to assure the American people that the FDA’s process and evaluation of the data for a potential COVID-19 vaccine will be as open and transparent as possible,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn said in a statement. “While we cannot predict how long the FDA’s review will take, the FDA will review the request as expeditiously as possible, while still doing so in a thorough and science-based manner so that we can help make available a vaccine that the American people deserve as soon as possible.”

Until a specific vaccine is approved, Cedars-Sinai is preparing for any scenario, installing freezers because one vaccine candidate requires ultracold storage at minus 80 degrees Celsius.

“We are putting special processes in place to make sure that we can receive this vaccine and keep it at those ultracold temperatures and thaw it at just the right time and reconstitute it, so it can be administered to those who need it,” Smith added.

Cedars-Sinai officials also stressed that people should not avoid seeking health care based on fears of COVID-19.

“It’s really important for the community and for our patients to know it is absolutely safe to come see your provider, whether that be in the hospital, in a provider’s office, in an urgent care setting or emergency room,” said infectious disease specialist Soniya Gandhi, associate chief medical officer of Cedars-Sinai Marina del Rey Hospital. “We don’t want a second public health emergency because people are ignoring their health care needs.”