Orange County Planning To Open COVID-19 Vaccine Sites At Senior Centers
SANTA ANA (CBSLA) — Orange County officials announced Friday that some senior centers would be utilized as vaccination sites to help inoculate the elderly against COVID-19.
"We've got to get mobile out into the neighborhoods and take the vaccine to them," Costa Mesa Mayor Katrina Foley said.
But, without a large supply of available vaccine doses, local mayors said the plan cannot yet be implemented. The county currently has about 20,000 doses available for the public, with up to 35,000 doses expected to arrive in the coming week.
And while a supersite has opened in the parking lot of Disneyland Resort for people over the age of 65, the slow delivery of vaccines was preventing the opening of additional locations, officials said.
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But the short supply was not the only issue facing those in Orange County, with demand overwhelming the county's online reservation system and problems with connectivity preventing some seniors from even signing up for appointments.
"We already have, you know, about 10,000 households that don't have access to the internet," Santa Ana Mayor Vince Sarmiento said. "So, if this is the only way you can register, it creates a real problem for folks in our community to be able to easily access that appointment date and registration."
Santa Ana principal said she has been helping the grandparents of her students make appointments.
"Most of our families, they've been a little worried about getting an appointment, if there's gonna be enough vaccines for them, and I think, too, access to technology, especially for the older population," she said. "They're really worried that they're not gonna be able to easily have access to get an appointment."
Foley said seniors in her community were facing similar obstacles.
"It's all electronic right now," she said. "You have to sign up on an app, so you have to have a smartphone, you have to have a computer, and we have lots of seniors that don't have any of those things. So we've been trying however we can to help them sign up."