Any Orange County resident who is 65 years and older can now be vaccinated against the coronavirus, provincial health officials said Tuesday, Jan. 12.
People aged 75 and over – as well as city and county firefighters – have recently been given preference by the OC Health Care Agency as the second phase of the vaccination campaign, Phase 1B, begins.
But after reviewing some worrying statistics on those admitted to the hospital who are in intensive care due to COVID-19, the province’s task force recommended late Sunday to extend vaccinations to people aged 65 and older. dr. District Health Officer Clayton Chau told the Board of Supervisors.
Data from about 13 hospitals, which provide the bulk of care to COVID-19 patients in the country, showed that the majority of people are hospitalized, as well as most of those in need of intensive care and a ventilator , is 61 or older, Chau said.
“My goal is to make sure we vaccinate the most vulnerable so that we can prevent them from entering the hospital, prevent them from entering the ICU, and the most important thing is to prevent them from dying,” Chau said.
For the time being, he advises people to contact their doctor or healthcare provider to ask about the vaccination. The province is also appealing to residents to plan to use a new app, which Othena helped develop, but the app does not yet allow people to make vaccinations.
This week, the province is opening a large-scale vaccination site at Disneyland, which is expected to be the first of five such operations.
Like Phase 1A health workers, anyone now in the appropriate age group will need an appointment with organizations that serve older adults and work with the country.
“There will also be targeted communication with these older adult communities,” says the Health Care Agency’s website for the distribution of vaccination. The shots will be fired at both mass vaccination sites and smaller sites that will be deployed closer to where the elderly live.
Other groups in Phase 1B, including teachers and childcare workers, and workers in food and agriculture, are not yet invited to be vaccinated.
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday whether the rollout to older residents had already begun, as health workers in the overlapping Phase 1A continued to line up at the invitation vaccination rooms in Anaheim, Irvine and Huntington Beach, where shots began last week. has.
The announcement comes amid increasing pressure on health departments nationwide to get more needles in more arms.
This is an evolving story.