OC Mass COVID Vaccination Sites Closing In June; County Switching To Mobile Clinics
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Officials Thursday announced Orange County's mass COVID-19 vaccination sites will close in June due to lack of demand.
The sites at the Anaheim Convention Center, the OC Fair & Event Center, Soka University and Santa Ana College will close June 6.
Orange County CEO Frank Kim said the drop in demand has opened up an opportunity "to shift to a mobile platform and instead of just serving the under equity populations, we can do it for everybody in Orange County."
He also said shifting the focus to mobile vaccination clinics would give the county a chance to have presence in more places, especially in areas where there is more resistance to getting the vaccine.
"We just think the time is right now to go more mobile and be more geographically diverse," Kim said.
And while the demand across the county has diminished, Kim said the O.C. Health Care Agency was not ending its vaccination efforts — just changing the format.
"It was different when we had very high volumes at Super PODs," he said. "It made sense to have them."
The last day for first-dose Moderna appointments at the sites will be Saturday. The last day for first-dose Pfizer appointments will be May 15. The sites will continue to offer the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine through June 5.
Orange County Thursday reported 38 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases and 13 additional deaths, bringing countywide totals to 254,201 cases and 4,992 deaths. And, for the fourth consecutive day, COVID hospitalizations remained under 100.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)