VENTURA, California – Ventura County has set up vaccination sites for the public to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for free.
The Ventura County Fairgrounds is already a place for COVID testing, but now people are standing outside another building to vaccinate.
“I wanted to be vaccinated as soon as possible,” said Walter Wheelis, a Westlake Village resident.
Wheelis said he waited patiently for the vaccine and was not nervous.
“No,” Whellis said. “Just excited to be vaccinated.”
Ventura County’s first vaccination site opened in South Oxnard, followed by the Fairgrounds Monday.
“Right now, we have two main sites, and some specialized sites at the public health facility, as well as one for the first response community,” said Barry Zimmerman, chief executive director of the Ventura County Health Care Agency. “We are looking for the construction of a site in East County where we will secure a facility this week, and then we will look for several other locations in the country.”
Land leaders hope to eventually have nine sites. Currently, the province is in phase 1-A of vaccination of the vaccine. This includes health workers and people living in long-term care facilities. Just like Haydriane Occidental works at a dental office in Oxnard.
“My office offered to vaccinate the entire staff, but it might as well go for it,” Occidental said.
The province hopes to move on to the next phase of the vaccination plan in two weeks. People can register online as soon as their phase begins. Once people are vaccinated, they are asked to stay in a waiting area for 15 minutes to make sure they do not respond.
“It really felt nothing,” Occidental said.
Nearly 15,000 vaccines were distributed, and the country received only 10,000 more from the state.
“We hope to increase the capacity of our vaccination systems to produce 5,000 vaccinations per day,” Zimmerman said. ‘With all the centers we have open, we are currently around 2,200-2,500, so we want to double that by the end of the month. Ultimately, our goal is to get up to 10,000 vaccinations a day. ”
The province is also looking for volunteers to help at the vaccination sites.
Click here if you want to register to be vaccinated or to volunteer at a vaccination site.