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ANAHEIM, Calif .– Residents hoping to register for coronavirus vaccinations flooded a new purpose-designed online registration system on Wednesday when the Orange County large-scale vaccination site opened in Disneyland Resort.
Cars lined the streets near the station on Wednesday, with residents eager to receive their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. But only those who had appointments were allowed in and everyone else was asked to leave.
Only residents who fell into phase 1A of the county’s vaccination plan were given the opportunity to make an appointment. Anyone living in Orange County who is 65 years of age or older can register. Others who meet the guidelines for phase 1A may also register for vaccination.
More than 10,000 residents of Orange County have scheduled COVID-19 vaccination appointments at the center of Disneyland Resort overnight via the Othena.com website. Thousands more have signed up on the Othena system to be notified when more appointments become available. The sheer scale of users caused the site to be warped on Wednesday, with health officials vowing to fix “technical problems that this massive influx of visitors could have caused.” By noon, Othena’s website appeared to be up and running.
At Disneyland, Orange County Health Care has turned a huge off-site parking lot into a coronavirus vaccination center, one of five planned for the county. The hope is to vaccinate up to 7,000 residents per day, officials said. Orange County spokeswoman Jessica Good said around 3,000 vaccines would be given on the first day of the operation.
The Othena website has a question-and-answer interface and invites users to fill out an information form. As users move around the site, the more restrictive question is whether they are 65 or not. If a user meets the age requirement, the website allows them to register. If not, she will be contacted when an appointment is available. The Othena app will soon be available on Google Play and is currently downloadable for Apple devices.
Throughout the day, users received intermittent notifications that the site had delayed registration “due to high traffic volumes.” New user registrations were also intermittently blocked. It is the growing pains of something that has never been done before.
The volume of interest in vaccination can be considered positive, and many residents reached out to Patch to say they were frustrated, confused and worried about whether they will have a chance to protect themselves from the pandemic. With over 3.2 million people and only a few thousand vaccinations a day, many are wondering how long it will take everyone to be protected against COVID-19.
Many South County residents – especially those over the age of 80 – have expressed concerns about accessing the Disneyland site and driving long distances for a chance to break free from coronavirus worries. .
Disneyland Resort is only the first of at least five super-vaccination sites to open as part of the county’s campaign for herd immunity, according to the Orange County supervisor and interim chairman, Andrew Do.
“If you open one more site, it’s 14,000 a day,” Do said. “Much will depend on how many vaccines arrive in Orange County. There’s no point in setting up super distribution points if we don’t have the vaccines to make it work.”
Authorities must vaccinate at least 2 million county residents to achieve the 60 to 70 percent “herd immunity” needed to stop the spread of the virus, Do.
As the coronavirus increases across the county, testing remains essential for residents who have been exposed to COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Orange County Supervisory Board is working to turn testing sites into vaccination centers.
Under the direction of the Orange County Health Care Agency, nurses and doctors from the Orange County Fire Authority helped administer the first vaccines to those who qualify for Phase 1A vaccinations.
Those who received their vaccinations at fire service facilities will now need to visit a large vaccination center such as Disneyland for their second dose. The county said people being vaccinated will need to access their account on Othena and be directed to a suitable secondary vaccination site within 21 days.
The crossing between those who need a second shot and those who get their first can become problematic, Do said. “How do you vaccinate 2 million people twice? That’s 4 million doses, ”he said.
Other distribution sites were discussed, such as Knott’s Berry Farm, the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, the University of California, the Irvine campus and the Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo.
Disneyland Resort, Orange County’s largest employer, has remained closed since the coronavirus pandemic hit Orange County in mid-March. Anaheim has suffered in both health and business terms, officials say. The city has seen some of the highest numbers of coronavirus cases in the county, and tourism-based businesses have been stranded.
County officials are hoping for a full-scale vaccination of Orange County residents and all hope this will end the ongoing shutdown that has devastated Anaheim, Orange County and much of southern California.
Those interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine can view stepwise eligibility levels and other important immunization information on the County Health Care Agency website.
Appointments are crucial so as not to overwhelm distribution centers, the agency said. “We know the public is anxious to receive the vaccine and we are working diligently to receive additional supplies,” a spokesperson for the agency said. “Appointments will be available as soon as the vaccine supply becomes available to meet this demand.”
Residents can make an appointment on Othena. By 10 a.m., Othena’s website had been shut down due to “high traffic volumes”.
“I see this as our first important step as a county to take our county back from COVID,” Do said. “Now it is we who are fighting the virus and defeating it by vaccinating many people.” It is not known how many residents were added to their registration system.
Read also: First obstacle: vaccinating residents in Orange County
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