Here is the latest known information on the coronavirus vaccine for Orange County, Calif. Page last updated Feb. 17. If you have updated information that should be included, please contact Voice of OC Digital Editor Sonya Quick at squick@voiceofoc.org.

Quick Link for Appointments

All vaccine registration for the Orange County public is directed to Othena, the county’s vaccine and testing management app. LINK HERE: Othena.com.

Latest Updates

DISNEYLAND SITE & ANAHEIM CONVENTION CENTER SITES OC’s mass Coronavirus vaccination site at Disneyland will temporarily close, due to severe weather across the U.S. delaying local deliveries of vaccine supplies. The county site says this of the issue: “The Disneyland Super POD will close temporarily through Monday, February 22, pending receipt of additional vaccine supply, as severe weather across the country has delayed delivery of vaccines. Everyone who has an appointment through Othena will receive a notification of their rescheduled appointment date through Othena. Additionally, the opening of the Anaheim Convention Center site, scheduled for Wednesday, February 24, is potentially delayed, also due to weather impacting deliveries.” (LINK)

VOLUNTEERS The volunteers at the Disneyland pod are now going through Elevate Staffing. A kind reader emailed Voice of OC with the Indeed post for people looking to get involved.

OTHENA APP Orange County officials are looking into why their Coronavirus vaccine registration app Othena didn’t notify some people of vaccine appointment delays after the temporary closure of the county’s mass vaccination site at Disneyland. (LINK)

TEACHER VACCINES The county says this on its site about educators receiving doses: “The HCA has been working with the Orange County Department of Education and school districts to plan for vaccinating educators when vaccine supply is replenished.”

SANTA ANA COLLEGE A new vaccination site was added on Feb. 17 at Santa Ana College after local officials in the city made repeated demands for a vaccine site in a hardest-hit and predominantly Latino city. (LINK)

UNCLEAR VACCINATION DATA In a Voice of OC article on Feb. 9 (LINK) OC Health Officer Dr. Clayton Chau was noted as saying that there’s still uncertainty on the actual number of people vaccinated.

VACCINE PR CONTRACT It turns out the county already had secretly hired the firm for COVID-19 outreach and secretly expanded the contract by $500,000 to include vaccine outreach. (LINK)

WATCH OUT FOR SCAMS The county in early February started warning residents to be careful of fake apps and scammers who may create malicious health-related applications as fraudulent vaccine apps. The county’s information states that the Othena app it uses for vaccination appointments will never ask for social security numbers, credit card information, bank information or any payment.

OTHENA UPDATES In January, the county announced that the Othena.com platform “continues to undergo updates to address technical issues and improve the customer experience.” The site is said to work on prioritizing vaccines for individuals based on the state’s guidelines, and eligibility factors and registration times.

VOLUNTEERS NEEDED The county continues to stress the need for volunteers to help in medical and non-medical roles. Register at: https://oneoc.org/.

SECOND DOSES The county says that anyone who received their first vaccine use through the Othena system will automatically receive a 2nd dose appointment through Othena. People who received their first dose via another system (such as a health care provider or employer) will receive the second dose from the same source.

SOKA UNIVERSITY A new vaccination site was added on Jan. 23 at Soka University. Directions to the university are available (LINK). The city of Aliso Viejo within which the university is located also tweeted a specific map for vaccination entrances and exits (LINK).

APPOINTMENTS NECESSARY The county health agency warns that people should ONLY go to the vaccination sites if they have an appointment and that vaccinations are only given to people with an appointment (LINK).

Who can Get the Vaccine?

SUMMARY: People working in health care systems (specifics here), seniors 65 years of age and older and law enforcement workers in high-risk settings.

Orange County seniors 65 years and older were announced to be able to receive the vaccine starting mid-January following county public health officials bumping the vulnerable group up on the priority tiers. The announcement was made by county public health officer and Director of OC Health Care Agency Dr. Clayton Chau in an emergency vaccine task force meeting Sunday (Jan. 10) night.

“We will start to vaccinate seniors of the age of 65 and above in Orange County, adding them to the Tier 1a,” Chau said at the County Supervisors public virus update Tuesday.

Healthcare workers and first responders are also listed in that tier. The new push for seniors comes after widespread criticism of slow vaccinations, not just in OC, but across the state.

The renewed vaccination efforts also come after concerns from local doctors, dentists, nurses, medical assistance and other health care workers not connected to hospitals.

Hospital workers were the first to start the two-part vaccination process last month, when OC received the vaccines.

The next tier of people to be vaccinated (tier 1B) includes people working in food and agriculture along with education.

Reserving a Vaccine Appointment

Voice of OC first wrote about vaccinations being opened up to seniors on Jan. 12.  But as of Wednesday, Jan. 13, the county issued a press releasethat so many requests were made that vaccine appointments are filled up. And checks on the Othena website and app as of Jan. 14 show (like in the image at right) that there are too many requests to even setup an account ahead of an available appointment.

All vaccine registration for the Orange County public is directed to Othena, the county’s vaccine and testing management app. LINK HERE: Othena.com.

The app says it can be used to setup an account even ahead of an available appointment. Othena is a vaccine scheduling system created by CuraPatient in conjunction with health care agencies (per the OC Health Care Agency).

The app is only available for iPhones and iPads (LINK) and no mention is made of an app for Android devices as of Jan. 14.

The Othena website (LINK) also allows for registration but has shown to be suffering under too much traffic as of Jan. 14.

A county release says that a limited supply of the vaccine is currently available and can ONLY be distributed through appointments. A site is being setup at the Disneyland Resort to distribute the vaccine, but officials warned that “overwhelming the system will make it even more challenging to dispense the limited supply of vaccine currently available.” Three other sites setup to give vaccines have been overwhelmed with people seeking the vaccine.

Officials say vaccine appointment slots are directly made available based on available vaccine doses.

How Many Vaccines Have Been Given in OC?

Data from the county that has been released is shown in the infographic below.

Learn the Latest

Subscribe to Voice of OC’s Coronavirus email news alerts HERE. Also, be sure to bookmark this COVID-19 vaccine information page because we will continue to keep it updated.

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County & State Information

COUNTY: The county has an information page on a vaccine distribution plan here: www.COVIDVaccineFacts.com. Contact the OC Health Care Agency at 714-834-2000 or ETeam@ochca.com.

STATE: The state has an information page here: https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccines/. You can also call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at 833-422-4255.

Volunteer in OC

The county says volunteers are needed to help with vaccine distribution and systems (LINK HERE) — people with and without medical experience.

COVID-19 Vaccine Information

UCLA offers this basic explanation of the available Coronavirus vaccines:

“The Pfizer vaccine is given in two shots, 21 days apart, and is authorized for use in people 16 years of age and older. The Moderna vaccine is given in two shots, 28 days apart, and is authorized for use in people 18 and older.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention offer these links to information on the vaccine: