Public health officials in Southern California are putting a lot of pressure this week to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations and quickly make the requested vaccinations more widely available.
To counter the slow pace of vaccinations in the region, officials in the counties of Los Angeles, Riverside and Orange are setting up ‘supersites’ or ‘superpods’ – large, well-known venues such as Disneyland and Dodger Stadium – where the masses vaccinations can take place, some as early as this week. In addition to the slow spread of vaccines, Southern Californians have also turned to social media to express frustrations about the lack of information on how, when and where to be vaccinated.
Supersites to expedite vaccinations
Riverside County on Tuesday put together an Incident Management Team that will work on creating several supersites that will enable them to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to ‘thousands of people instead of hundreds of people’. Provinces of Riverside, Los Angeles and San Bernardino are only open to healthcare workers and patients in long-term care facilities. On Tuesday, Orange County health officials announced that any resident 65 and older is now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
It was a challenge to get this information out, just like getting vaccines into people’s arms, said Jose Arballo Jr., a spokesman for the Riverside County Department of Public Health. At the moment, the only way people can stay informed is by keeping an eye on the health department’s website and searching for the information, he said. The department is working to send the communication to community partners such as non-profit organizations, businesses, homeowners’ associations and other groups, which has the ability to disseminate information to a wider group of people.
Arballo said the biggest challenge was initially hesitation of vaccines, but now it is keeping pace with demand.
“We have hundreds of people on the waiting list,” he said. “We are working to find people who have the right qualifications. We look at nursing students, EMTs and other students we can train, who can then man these superpods. “
Meet the overwhelming demand
It would also help if those not currently eligible do not make appointments or walk into the sites, Arballo said.
“It takes place and time away from the people who now have to get the vaccines, and slows down the process as well,” he said.
In Los Angeles County, health officials plan to open five supersites to speed up vaccinations for health workers. Officials expect that this expansion will enable them to complete 500,000 additional vaccinations among health workers by the end of January. Los Angeles County expects to begin vaccinations in early February for people 65 and older, and for people 50 and older as well as younger individuals with underlying health conditions by the end of March. These levels will also include essential workers.
Health officials face the challenge of coming up with a system that can deliver the vaccine efficiently and quickly to as many people as possible, said Dr. Clayton Chau, Orange County health officer and the director of the county’s health care agency, said.
“The infrastructure to provide the vaccines is the same as the people tasked with caring for sick people – the healthcare system,” he said, adding that the supersites will be able to provide the much-needed infrastructure to meet the vaccination goals.
Provincial health officials are overwhelmed by calls to ask when they can get the vaccine, but Chau believes it is a good headache for us because it means more people are open to getting the vaccine, which will ultimately help herd- immunity and reopen that economy.
San Bernardino County has had no announcements about supersites since Tuesday. Spokesman David Wert said the country was pleased with the progress made so far. He said the province received 75,900 first doses, of which 38,770 were administered, calling it a ‘very respected relationship’. The province received 43,625 more vaccines for second doses, he said.
Wert said they have not yet faced any significant challenges with the distribution of vaccines, but that the province’s vaccination team is ‘discussing different strategies’.
Residents of the province can call the COVID hotline at 909-387-3911 or visit sbcovid19.com for more information, including information on vaccination sites and how to register.
Frustrations with the system
But basic information on how, when and where to get vaccinated is frustrating for many. Teri Pearlstein, 66, of Laguna Beach, said she did not know where to register or who to contact for information.
“We need advertisements on television, signs on highways and in communities telling us what to do in ordinary English,” she said. ‘I’ll drive to Long Beach if I can get a vaccine now, but I do not know if I can do it. This is beyond frustration. ”
Even those who were able to get the vaccines speak of problems with registration and that they have to wait hours to be vaccinated. Savington Beach resident Sav Ridley said her elderly parents had to wait three hours and 20 minutes to get their shots fired at a local vaccination site. It took her five days to even get the appointments, she said.
When her parents waited inside with about 40 others in smaller rooms, she raised concerns about infections.
“My dad said he felt safer when he was waiting in line than when he was inside,” Ridley said, adding that a “drive-up” system would be much safer, especially in the supersites, which are probably more pressure will be.
Orange County health officials have urged residents to register with the Othena vaccination and test management app, but complaints have been raised on social media that the app is not working and that they are still having trouble scheduling appointments. This now seems to be the only recommended way to plan appointments. Only people with appointments can be vaccinated at the supersites, health officials said.
A logistical challenge
Public health officials are scrambling to set up the logistics, because while billions of dollars have been allocated to develop the vaccine, only a few hundred million have been distributed to health departments across the country, which simply were not enough to prepare the infrastructure for vaccine distribution. not. , says Shira Shafir, associate professor of epidemiology at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.
“The health departments are too hard,” she said.
But Shafir said it was promising to see larger health departments announce plans for supersites to speed up the process.
“These are places like Disneyland that people know and there are clear ways to get people in and out,” she said. “Once the health departments find out their operations and increase the capacity, we will see that things improve.”