Los Angeles County health officials will soon be required to ask the public for cell phone numbers and emails while administering COVID-19 vaccination doses. The requirements, implemented by the state, will begin on Oct. 1.
“This information is needed to enable residents to easily access their digital COVID-19 vaccine record after the vaccine has been administered,” the department said in a statement.
“When healthcare workers report COVID-19 vaccination information without [a recipient’s] mobile phone number or email address, the vaccine recipient is not able to access their [digital vaccine record] in a timely fashion and must often go through a time-consuming process with the California Department of Public Health.”
While state health workers are now required to ask for the information, it will not be required to provide it, health officials said. If a person chooses to keep their information private, they will still be allowed to get the vaccine.
To access COVID-19 vaccination records, visit https://myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov/ and enter first and last name, date of birth, and a cell phone number or email address.
The next step is to enter a four-digit pin number that is easily remembered and hit “submit” to request the vaccine record. An image with a QR code and vaccination information shows up almost instantly in a text or email. The message will have a QR code and the dates of first and second doses.
Health officials say the QR code and dates can be screenshot and saved to a phone or computer in order to prove vaccination status at businesses and public spaces when a card is not available.
All information provided to the state department of public health is kept confidential, according to the digital vaccine record website.
Latest numbers released by L.A. Public Health:
Latest numbers show a decline in COVID-19 hospitalizations.
As of Sept. 27, there are 986 new cases, five new deaths and 907 current hospitalizations.
“Of the five new deaths reported today, one person who passed away was over the age of 80, three people who died were between the ages of 65 and 79, and one person who died was between the ages of 50 and 64,” the department said.
The number of those currently hospitalized has decreased by 146 people over the past week, and 311 people over the past two weeks.
To date, L.A. Public Health has identified 1,455,155 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 26,018 deaths.
"To everyone who has lost a loved one or a friend to COVID-19, I send my deepest condolences,” said Barbara Ferrer, the director of public health.
“This pandemic has made it clear that individual decisions have an enormous impact on our collective well-being. While it is easy to cast safety measures and vaccination requirements as a curtailment of individual freedoms, it is perhaps more useful to view these as sensible actions that allow us to protect each other from a virus that destroys lives and livelihoods.”