[ad_1]
Any Orange County resident aged 65 and over is now eligible to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, county health officials said on Tuesday, January 12.
People aged 75 and over – as well as city and county firefighters – were recently given preference by the OC Health Care Agency as it launches the second phase of the campaign to vaccination, phase 1B.
But after examining alarming statistics of people hospitalized and in intensive care due to COVID-19, the county’s vaccine task force recommended on Sunday evening to expand vaccinations to people 65 and older, said County health director Dr Clayton Chau on Tuesday on the supervisory board.
Data from about 13 hospitals, which provide the bulk of care for COVID-19 patients in the county, showed that a majority of people hospitalized, along with most of those in need of intensive care and in need of treatment. ‘a fan, are 61 or older,’ Chau said.
“My goal is to make sure that I vaccinate the most vulnerable so that I can prevent them from going to the hospital, to prevent them from going to the ICU and, most importantly, to prevent them from dying,” said Chau. .
For now, he advises people to contact their doctor or health care provider to ask for the vaccine. The county is also urging residents to plan to use a new app it helped develop called Othena, but the app does not yet allow people to schedule vaccination appointments.
This week, the county is opening a large-scale vaccination site at Disneyland, which is expected to be the first of five such operations.
Similar to phase 1A healthcare workers, anyone who is now in the eligible age range will need an appointment initiated by organizations that serve the elderly and that work in partnership with the county.
“There will also be targeted communications to these elderly communities,” says the Health Care Agency’s vaccine distribution website. Vaccines will be administered both at mass vaccination sites and at smaller sites that will be deployed closer to where older people live.
The other Phase 1B cohorts, including teachers and educators and food and agriculture workers, are not yet invited to be vaccinated.
It was not immediately clear on Tuesday whether the rollout to older residents had already started, as overlapping Phase 1A healthcare professionals continued to line up at invitation-only vaccination sites in Anaheim, Irvine. and Huntington Beach, where the shooting started last week.
The announcement came amid increasing pressure on the country’s health services to get more needles in more weapons.
This is a developing story.
[ad_2]
Source link