Los Angeles County received its first shipments of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses this week, and the shots will be used on first responders along with residents and workers at nursing homes.  

The first shipment was delivered to 17 nursing facilities Tuesday, and by the end of this month officials plan to administer 69,000 vaccines at all of the county’s nursing homes, L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a livestreamed briefing Wednesday evening.

“The critical need for this couldn’t be any clearer,” Garcetti said. “You remember early on the number of deaths that we had in our skilled nursing facilities — just 5% of Californians live in these facilities, but they accounted for 35% of the deaths.”

L.A. County nursing homes have reported more than 23,000 virus cases and at least 2,393 deaths. For the week ending Dec. 12, the most recent week for which data is available, the facilties reported 2,159 new coronavirus cases and 72 deaths. 

Barbara Ferrer, the county’s public health director, said earlier Wednesday the county is receiving 116,600 Moderna vaccine doses this week that will be given to nursing facilities, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.

Meanwhile, the Pfizer vaccine is being used in an effort to vaccinate a third of the county’s front-line health care workers by New Year’s Eve.

As of Tuesday night, more than 38,800 medical workers had been vaccinated at acute care hospitals. An estimated 406,000 front-line medical workers are eligible in this phase, Ferrer said.

The county’s first two Pfizer vaccine shipments contain about 131,600 doses.

L.A. County remains in the midst of the most startling trends of the pandemic, with hospitals preparing emergency plans in case they need to limit how many people receive life-saving care.

Also on Wednesday, county public health officials reported the highest daily COVID-19 death toll since the pandemic began.

The 145 deaths reported Wednesday bring the total to 9,153 virus-related fatalities countywide since the pandemic began. The previous record, of 134 deaths in a day, was set just last week.

Meanwhile, another 16,525 virus cases were reported Wednesday, bringing the county’s total to 663,954.

Garcetti himself has been in quarantine the past week after his 9-year-old daughter tested positive for coronavirus. On Monday, the mayor said he and his wife have continued to test negative.

The mayor cautioned that the vaccine rollout does not signal it’s time for Angelenos to “let our guard down.”

“It’s no reason for a Christmas wave to build on a Thanksgiving wave that’s nearly drowning us already,” he said.”