LOS ANGELES, July 7 (UPI) -- Los Angeles schools, trying to comply with a new California law requiring students to be vaccinated for whooping cough, have already run out of vaccine.
Officials said there were 600 doses stockpiled, the Los Angeles Times reported. By Wednesday, all were gone, administered to students attending school on a year-round schedule.
The law took effect Friday. It requires all students in grades 7 through 12 to get whooping cough shots unless they have received an exemption for personal beliefs.
Officials said students who did not get the vaccine will be allowed to remain in school if their parents or guardians return signed forms. They will receive their shots once more become available.
Most year-round students qualify for a federal program that supplies free vaccine to low-income and uninsured families.
The law was passed last fall after a major whooping cough epidemic in California, one many health officials said was partly caused by teenagers who had not been vaccinated.
