By 
Spencer Custodio |
Orange County’s demand for coronavirus vaccination overloads the current registration system that allows people to get an appointment vaccinated, causing confusion and anger for some residents.
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“The site is not user-friendly at all, and I think it’s going to crash. You think in 2021 we can bring everything together. We had a year to prepare for this, ‘JoAnn Arvizu said in a Thursday telephone interview.
Arvizu, a 71-year-old resident of Huntington Beach, said she had been trying to get an appointment for her 77-year-old husband and herself since the website was launched earlier this week.
‘I know how to operate a computer, and yesterday we asked you to log in and enter a password, and they said you were ready. And then you go log in and say you need to reset your password. It happened to my husband six times, ‘said Arvizu.
She expressed frustration over the fact that she could not get some confirmation and about the apparent website errors.
‘They did not even ask for an email address to notify you. You should continue to visit their website to find out if you have an appointment. Then there’s an appointment … you click on it and it says you need to update your profile. Well, I just posted my profile info there yesterday and do you want me to update it? Arvizu said.
She is not alone.
Numerous elderly residents have expressed almost the same concern as Voice of OC throughout the week.
Arvizu compared the situation to the famous Abbott and Costello baseball routine.
“At the end of the page there is your appointment or cancel your appointment. Well, I do not have an appointment. Who’s first here? I’m so crazy I do not even want to do this. But I will keep trying, ”said Arvizu.
Othena, the website and application to register people for the vaccination, was overloaded this week, causing registration delays.
“We are currently experiencing exceptionally large amounts of traffic to our site,” the Othena website said Thursday morning.
By Thursday afternoon, it was ready again.
OC health officials are trying to open five vaccination supersites to distribute up to 40,000 vaccinations a day through an appointment base – no sequencing allowed. Each site is expected to vaccinate up to 8,000 people a day.
The first one opened with a large public link at Disneyland this week, after provincial officials announced on Tuesday that they would begin vaccinating the elderly aged 65 and older.
Yet the officials of the province were apparently not ready for such a great reaction.
‘The number of people trying to make an appointment is so high that the system can be overloaded. As you know, the server can handle just as many calls and sometimes crash them. Be patient. Try again in the future if it is not available today, “said Andrew Do, chairman of the supervisors, during a Wednesday news conference at Disneyland.
Do said they are addressing the issue by trying to get more bandwidth to handle the large amount of registrations.
He also said the move to the opening of the Disneyland supersite is an attempt to prove government officials that Orange County is capable of doing mass vaccinations so they can get more vaccines.
“It is part of the intention to show the state that Orange County has a mechanism and process in place to administer the vaccine in an efficient and timely manner,” Do said. “The state directs much of its action based on the performance of the country. And with the vaccination, it is no different. ”
It’s unclear when the other four supersites will open.
About 280,000 vaccinations per week are needed to maximize all five supersites.
Jason County, president of the Orange County Medical Association, said while he expressed the community’s frustration at not being able to register, it seemed at least that waves of people were ready to take the vaccine.
‘We know that the Othena website will be overloaded at the beginning. We’re going through this – I recommend that people keep watching … Every time it gets full, a large group of people are vaccinated. “In some ways, it’s encouraging to see that we have less hesitation and more enthusiasm about the vaccine,” Cord said in a Thursday telephone interview.
Cord said he personally understands the frustration.
‘I have two parents aged 80 and over. So I help them get on the app, ‘Cord said. “It’s challenging because we all know the site is flooded.”
Vaccination clinics targeting health workers were closed earlier this week because people flocked to them without appointments in hopes of being vaccinated.
‘The province consists of three [vaccination] sites today were overwhelmed without appointments by individuals, which effectively closed the vaccination sites. It is critical for people to understand that appointment slots are available based on the availability of vaccines. The search for officials without an appointment emphasizes the system and depletes scarce resources, “said provincial officials on Tuesday. news release.
Meanwhile, local health officials are expecting an additional 35,000 doses by next week.
“This morning we have just been informed by the state … we will receive another 35,000 doses next week,” Provincial Health Officer Dr Clayton Chau said at the Wednesday news conference. “We get an award every week.”
While people anxiously await the vaccine, virus deaths have gradually increased.
The virus has now killed 2,195 people out of 202,753 confirmed cases, including 16 new deaths reported today, according to the country Healthcare Agency.
The agency has reported nearly 300 new deaths since the beginning of the year.
Newly reported deaths can last for weeks due to delays.
Arvizu said the deaths hit the home because the virus had become so widespread.
“Unfortunately, friends have passed away. “It used to be someone you did not know,” she said.
The virus has already killed more than three times as many people as the flu on an annual average.
In that context, Orange County has averaged about 20,000 deaths a year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to state health data.
According to the state’s death statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die as a result of Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
According to the latest available state data, Orange County exceeded its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 21,110 people in November.
It is a difficult virus for the medical community to tackle because some people show no symptoms but can still spread it. Others feel slight symptoms, such as fatigue and mild fever.
Others end up in ICUs for days and weeks before making it out, while others eventually die from the virus.
The agency also reported another 3,221 new virus cases on Thursday.
Orange County has averaged about 3,500 new cases per day over the past week.
Public health officials estimate that about 12% of newly infected people are admitted to hospital within three weeks.
During the week, Chau repeatedly said the decision to include people aged 65 and older in the first round of vaccinations is an attempt to prevent them from being admitted to hospital.
Chau told provincial supervisors on Tuesday that more than half of all hospitalizations are in OC 65 and older.
Cord said he supports the move.
“We know that our ICUs are stressed and that our hospitals are stressed,” he said. “So if we want to flatten the use curve for hospitals, and not just the curve in general, we need to address it.”
For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Orange County, visit our Voice or OC information sheet: http://bit.ly/occovidvaccine.
Here is the latest information on the virus numbers in Orange County from data from the country:
Infections | Hospitalizations and deaths | City-by-city data | Demographics
Spencer Custodio is a reporter for the Voice of OC staff. You can reach him at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio