Orange County has opened three mass vaccination rooms for the next level of eligible health workers to get their first COVID-19 shot.
The Orange County Health Care Agency began administering the first doses to all people listed in Phase 1A on Thursday, January 7, which has been targeted at leading hospital workers, residents of long-term care facilities and first responders since mid-December to receive their coronavirus vaccines. . first.
The list of health professionals who can make a vaccination includes paramedics, dentists, laboratory technicians, home health care workers and pharmacists, as well as workers at nursing homes, emergency care, dialysis centers and some law enforcement.
“Groups have been contacted by the OC Health Care Agency to make appointments to receive vaccines at designated locations in Orange County,” agency spokeswoman Jessica Good said Thursday. A photo ID and a professional license, an employee badge, a pay stub or a signed letter from their employer with the correct letterhead must be shown.
A series of people wandered down the street of the North Net Training Center in Anaheim on Thursday, January 7, while waiting to receive their first doses. Other locations are in Huntington Beach and Irvine.
About 900 people were expected to get a chance by the end of the day, Anaheim spokesman Mike Lyster said.
People receiving their dose pulled into one of the ten stations manned by paramedic crew members from Anaheim, Brea, Fullerton and Orange.
After their shots, the recipients were monitored for allergic reactions, Lyster said.
“Everyone we did today, we’ve never had any problems,” he said. “Most people just go on the road.”
Lyster said the province sent notices to people to make an appointment to receive their dose, but more showed up than expected. But everyone was screened and only those eligible received a vaccination – some pensioners and health workers from other provinces were turned down, he said.
Lyster said appointments are being emphasized going forward, and the site is expected to continue through the weekend.
Places where larger numbers can accommodate people are currently underway. Anaheim officials would like to host at least one in the city, Lyster said.
“In the longer term, our city is ready to have all kinds of sites with the country,” he said. ‘All we do today is get ready for later’, when the vaccine can be made available to anyone who wants it.
The province is planning, in an effort called Operation Independence, for local “Super Point-of-Dispensing” sites that could vaccinate thousands of people a day, Orange County Supervisory Board Chairman Andrew Do said in a press release on Thursday. .
“The province meets the need for at least five Super PODs that will be brought online as it is approved, manned and has COVID-19 vaccines available,” the statement said. Places will be announced as soon as they are finalized.
The people who received their first dose at the Anaheim Training Center will receive their second dose at one of the new sites, Lyster said.
The current three temporary sites have so far been provided with 6,400 doses by the Health Agency, Good said.
According to a new online tracking panel, about 32,000 people were vaccinated in Orange County on December 31st.
Good said the health agency did not yet know how often it would update the vaccination data. “We are waiting until next week when more robust data is expected from the state.”
Reluctance to be among the first to get a new vaccine and other logistical problems delayed the state’s initial implementation. About one in three hospital workers in Orange County decide to skip the shot, the director of the health care agency, Dr. Clayton Chau, said this week.
In Orange County, the next vaccination waves, Phase 1B and 1C, are expected to begin sometime in February, according to a detailed schedule on the Health Care Agency website. These phases so far include elderly residents and others older than 16 with underlying medical conditions or disabilities who place a high risk for a severe case of COVID-19, as well as a variety of essential workers.