I hope you are all staying safe as we get through this next phase of the pandemic. The County has been vaccinating our seniors (65+ years old), who have moved into the current Phase 1A status. My office has received emails from seniors who are frustrated with the performance of this new technology, a system that is bogged down with sky-high demand and limited supply. I share this frustration with you.

Orange County must request vaccines from the state; OC makes those requests weekly, if not more. Please be assured the County is administering its portion of vaccines as fast as possible for seniors wanting the vaccine.

The County got ~20% of the vaccine allocation; 80% of the vaccines from the state went to private providers and hospitals, so please also check with your health care provider, local hospitals, and ambulance companies.The County is requesting the state send us more vaccines ASAP.

Supervisor Don Wagner

OC Health Care Agency has created the Othena.com website, and this past week, it registered more than 104 million hits. To date, over 256,000 people have been registered through Othena, with an average of 12,000 registrations per hour. Due to high demand, the site only books 3 days out as we have more arms than vaccines at the moment. (I’ve heard from constituents that the desktop version worked better than the mobile app.)

Please do not give up trying to sign up for a vaccine. We hope the state releases more shots to us, making the process easier for everyone.

Right now, the Orange County Health Care Agency is working with the Othena’s team, ensuring issues are ironed out as they arise. My office has requested an accessible support team is made available to the public. If you are facing specific technical issues, for now, please send any supporting screenshots and documentation to eteam@ochca.com, so the Health Care Agency can forward them to Othena’s technicians.

The OC Health Care Agency is working diligently to create more sites with more resources available soon. Please see the Othena Q+A from our Health Care Agency in this email. I will also provide updates as soon as they are available. Thank you in advance for your patience as we work through this together.