Starting next week, Orange County will dedicate about a third of the new coronavirus vaccines to those working in the education, childcare and food and agriculture sectors – a move to the next phase of the country’s mass immunization.
But short-term plans will be subject to the recent extreme winter weather, which has frozen the supply lines of an already logistically scarce vaccine.
A new line of workers, from teachers to grocery workers, will soon be invited to report for shots, according to a provincial memorandum issued on Friday, February 19th. There is no specific date for vaccinating workers in these sectors.
Other traditional health care networks and pharmacies that receive grants from the state, starting their own mass vaccinations, should follow the same guidelines and award guidelines, the memo reads.
“Othena sends information about the state’s updated clues to all registered users, explaining how the changes could affect their place in the digital waiting room,” said the memorandum, sent by OC Health Care Agency director and health officer, dr. Clayton Chau, to the Provincial Board of Supervisors.
The expansion of the eligibility for the new groups, commonly referred to as Phase 1b, will delay vaccinations for the elderly, Chau noted.
“This change to the admission guidelines means a slower roll-out of vaccines for individuals currently eligible under Phase 1a (mainly health workers) and people aged 65 and over.”
It was also not immediately clear whether larger shipments of both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots were on tap to support the expansion to new essential workers – the low dose availability limited a nationwide operation to immunize as many people as possible .
Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee, who sits on the council’s vaccination task force, said the country recently received about 35,000 to 40,000 doses a week.
It is challenging to find the best and fairest way to divide them, with so many people looking for shots, he said.
“We all want to come out under the threat of COVID-19,” Chaffee said, adding that if educators, grocery workers and others are added to the appropriate list, “I hope we will continue to give our priority to our hardest hit.” groups, who are our seniors – there are many of those we have not yet joined. ”
However, the board noted that a new Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine is expected to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, February 26th.
“We expect this third vaccine platform option to increase the supply of vaccines and help us vaccinate more people faster,” the memorandum said.
With a growing variety of large and small-scale vaccination sites, provincial staff have been giving shots for weeks to health workers, first responders, people living and working in skilled nursing homes and all 65 years and older living or working in Orange County.
“Starting next week, 30% of the vaccine’s allocation for the province, including those for the multi-regional entities such as UCI, Kaiser and Providence here in Orange County, will be allocated to our education, childcare, food and agriculture sectors.” said Chau. by email to a reporter Thursday, February 18th. “We will start vaccinating these people.”
However, vaccines also had to take into account the disruption of the supply chain due to a cold that is affecting a large part of the country.
Due to the delays and shortage of supply, provincial leaders announced Thursday that the Disneyland Super POD (delivery point) in Anaheim would close until Monday, while another large site at Soka University in Aliso Viejo would only administer time-sensitive second doses.
“Once the vaccine supply has been replenished and the Super POD sites reopened, we will prioritize the second dose of vaccinations for people who have received their first dose through Othena and individuals eligible for phase 1b,” the memorandum said.
About 207,000 doses were administered by Friday to people who registered on Othena, the province’s vaccine administration system – about 674,000 people registered via the app and website.
On Feb. 9, Chau told the board of supervisors that he would hold out for two weeks to extend the province’s shots to educators, food service workers and other groups that the state justifies, while a backlog of seniors who have not yet not. vaccinated, was worked through.
The memorandum on Friday gave more details about the closures caused by the recent winter storms across the country: Super PODs at Disneyland and Soka University and a new plan planned to launch next week at the Anaheim Convention Center will only from about a second dose. Tuesday 23 February to 2 March.
“Individuals eligible under Phase 1b will receive vaccinations at the Santa Ana College POD (a smaller site that opened Wednesday) and at school grounds coordinated by the Orange County Department of Education,” the memorandum said.
Andrea Zinder, president of a local chapter of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, was pleased that grocery stores and other workers would soon be able to get vaccinated.
“We are delighted that the province is recognizing essential food workers who feed our communities while endangering their lives and their lives,” Zinder said. “Access to vaccines is also critical for our members in communities hard hit by this virus.”
The Orange County Department of Education is working with the OC Health Care Agency to plan for the vaccination of educators and school staff.
Given the current supply of vaccine doses that Orange County receives, the focus will remain on doses to educators aged 65 and older and health workers at schools, Department of Education spokesman Ian Hanigan said Friday.
“We are working to get them vaccinated as soon as possible,” he said.
On Thursday, a distribution site opened in Garden Grove to vaccinate those who were already eligible – 65 and older and health workers – and it delivered about 200 shots the first day, Hanigan said. But with the disruption to transportation caused by the storms, vaccinations were halted Friday until more supplies became available.
People are being contacted to arrange a vaccination at the site, but it is not taking access, Hanigan said. The Department of Education is working through Othena to make appointments.
The Department of Education plans to open more education-specific distribution sites on campuses across the country, and about seven are expected to open in mid-April.
And more vaccines are needed.
“We all agree that we need to get the vaccine for educators who want it,” Hanigan said. “The demand is definitely high and we will work on them as soon as possible.”
Educators were frustrated by the delay and called for “immediate” access for school staff on Thursday.
More than 25 teachers’ unions in Orange County, several councilors and Joanne Culverhouse, La Habra City Superintendent, signed a letter saying that unless educators are given access to vaccines, “the reopening of the school and the full-time return are unnecessary will extend and that schools currently teaching at a distance will experience the yo-yo effect of opening and closing due to repeated quarantines among the school staff. ”
The pending expansion of the qualification ‘is a start’, said Denise Bradford, a board member of the California Teachers Association, in the Saddleback Valley district. ‘I think it’s hard to rush up with a low supply and the weather hampering the vaccination of the vaccine. But on the other hand, I do not understand why teachers started. ”
Aside from the weather delays, Gavin Newsom said Friday that the state expects more consistent vaccines and that its federal allocation will increase.
Newsom said consistency gives the state the confidence to set aside a baseline of 75,000 first-dose vaccines for teachers, school staff and child care workers each week.
Staff Writers Alicia Robinson and Heather McRea and the Associated Press contributed to this report.