A full-time COVID-19 vaccination site opened on the campus of Santa Ana College Wednesday, Feb. 17, to target doses at residents – for now seniors – living in some of Orange County’s neighborhoods hit hardest by the coronavirus.
Orange County has been operating “Super PODs” (points of dispensing) at Disneyland in Anaheim and Soka University in Aliso Viejo that can give thousands of shots a day.
Staff administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a drive through site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Amirah Chalabi, LVN administers a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot at the drive through vaccination site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
People receive a vaccination card after getting the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot at a drive through vaccination site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Staff administer the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine at a drive through site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Chilled syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine wait for use at drive through vaccination site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
Lindsay Ujihara, RN administers a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 shot at the drive through vaccination site at Santa Ana College in Santa Ana, CA on Wednesday, February 17, 2021. The site is by appointment only. It will deliver 1,000 slots a day and will only be available to people in select ZIP codes that have been hardest hit by COVID-19. (Photo by Paul Bersebach, Orange County Register/SCNG)
The Santa Ana College site will be a mid-sized site expected to inoculate about 1,000 people daily on Tuesdays through Saturdays. But it will only be open to residents of specific ZIP codes where there have been higher infection rates and more people hospitalized or killed by the virus. County officials hope to reverse those trends.
Currently the county is focused on inoculating those 65 and older. An appointment is required for any of the county sites and are made through its Othena app or Othena.com website. After an eligible person registers on Othena they will later receive an email to make an appointment when a dose is available to them.
Santa Ana and Anaheim and parts of nearby communities, especially certain neighborhoods where residents may live in more crowded conditions and have jobs they can’t do from home, have been more seriously affected by the pandemic than other parts of Orange County. Along with mobile pop-up vaccination clinics that have been held in some of the neighborhoods, the Santa Ana College site is expected to help get more doses into residents along with a similar site in the works at Christ Cathedral.
Orange County’s COVID-19 statistics have been improving in recent weeks, with the number of positive tests and hospitalizations falling as the county ramps up vaccinations. But officials have said vaccine supply is still a concern.
