by Steven Felschundneff | steven@claremont-courier.com

As of yesterday, patrons and employees at Los Angeles County bars, lounges, nightclubs, breweries, wineries and distilleries will have to show evidence of at least the first dose of COVID vaccination, or a recent negative test, to enter or be served.

On November 4, employees and customers will be required to prove full vaccination status at these businesses.

“Mobile vaccination teams are going across the county to help get vaccinations to employees wherever needed, and Public Health is connecting businesses with testing vendors to provide the necessary testing for unvaccinated employees and patrons,” public health officials said in a statement.

Business owners can request a county mobile vaccination unit visit the establishment where people need to get vaccinated by visiting the vaccination portal at the County of Los Angeles Public Health website.

The county is inching closer to the threshold of herd immunity with 69% of residents now fully vaccinated and 78% having received at least one dose. The World Health Organization has cautioned, however, that because this virus is still so new it is not yet known what level of inoculation will be required to reach “population immunity.” Additionally, people who become infected with COVID-19 do develop some natural immunity, but it is not yet known how strong or long lasting that immunity will be, according to WHO.

While large swaths of the county are now above 75% immunized including much of the San Gabriel Valley and the west side of the county, the vaccination rate in Claremont has only crept up to 69.7% in the last few weeks.

There have been 94 new infections over the past three weeks in Claremont, bringing the cumulative total 2,864. Thankfully, there have been no new deaths in recent weeks and the total remains at 61.

The county continues to see the local outbreak decline, with it a similar drop in the number of people hospitalized, which stood at 748 on Wednesday. However, the county also reported 31 deaths. There were 1,479 new cases reported Wednesday, bringing the county’s cumulative total to 1,466,248.

“On September 27, the county’s 7-day daily case average was 1,050 new cases — a decrease of more than 57% from a month earlier. Over the same period, hospitalizations and deaths both declined by 45%. And while the declines are promising, the county continues to see, on average, 14 deaths a day, a particular tragedy because so many of them could have been prevented by vaccination,” health officials said in a statement.