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The Coronavirus mass vaccination site in Orange County at Disneyland will temporarily close due to severe weather in the U.S. that the authorities say has delays in local delivery of vaccine supplies.
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As a result, county officials also expect delays in opening a new vaccination site at the Anaheim Convention Center, which was scheduled for February 24.
Officials say the county Soka University vaccination site, which mainly distributes the Pfizer vaccine, will remain open to provide second-dose Pfizer vaccines, if supply and availability permit.
The Santa Ana College site will also be closed temporarily from February 20, and officials say the reopening date depends on receiving an additional supply of vaccine from Pfizer, according to the county.
“Bad weather across the country delayed the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine supplies across the state of California, including Orange County,” says a county statement sent on Thursday.
On Tuesday, the expected delivery of Moderna vaccines to the county did not arrive, officials said.
“As a result, Moderna’s vaccine stock is very low. State guidance encourages the distribution of all vaccine supplies as quickly as possible and does not allow the maintenance of a large stock in the reserve. “
The Disneyland Super POD (Distribution Point) website primarily administers the Modern vaccine, so it will close until Monday, February 22, “pending receipt of additional supplies on (February 22),” says the county statement.
Officials say that anyone who has scheduled an appointment at the affected locations will receive a notification through Othena with information about the rescheduled appointments.
On Thursday, the Director of the Orange County Health Agency, Dr. Clayton Chau, gave the county’s elected Board of Supervisors a private update on the matter.
The state guideline “encourages vaccine suppliers, including county health departments, to dispense all vaccine supplies as quickly as possible and does not allow a large stock to be kept in the reserve,” says the memo to the council – obtained by Voice of OC – de Chau, who is also the acting public health agent.
On Wednesday night, residents of the Internet discussion platform Reddit posted about the notifications they received, telling them that their second dose appointments on the Disneyland website had been rescheduled.
Voice of OC asked the county last night about these posts, which did not get a response until the county’s statement came out on Thursday.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says that people who take the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should receive their second dose after 3 weeks, and those who take the first dose of the Moderna vaccine receive their second dose after a month .
Although the CDC still considers the second doses administered within a “grace period” of 4 days before the recommended “valid” period.
And if vaccine delays are inevitable for people, the CDC says that second doses of the vaccines can be administered up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose.
“If the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series,” says the CDC on its website.
The number of patients hospitalized with the virus continues to decrease, reaching 663 hospitalizations.
Meanwhile, deaths continue to rise, reaching 3,685 since the pandemic began, with 41 new deaths reported today.
To date, there have been 243,665 confirmed cases.
To put it in context, Orange County has averaged about 20,000 deaths from other causes per year since 2016, including 543 annual deaths from influenza, according to state health data.
According to state mortality statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die from Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
Orange County has already exceeded its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 23,883 people killed in December, according to the latest available state data.
Coronavirus deaths, however, have now outgrown flu, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke as the cause of death in Orange County. Currently, cancer alone kills more residents annually than the virus.
Brandon Pho is a reporter for Voice of OC and a member of Report for America, a GroundTruth initiative. Contact him at [email protected] or on Twitter @photherecord.