Disneyland Super POD Reopens With Drive-Thru Lanes For Disabled

ORANGE COUNTY, CA —Orange County officials expect to be notified Monday evening if they will be able to graduate from the most restrictive purple tier to the red tier next week.

The county on Monday reported 163 more coronavirus cases, raising the cumulative to 247,914.

Hospitalizations continued to decline with 288 COVID-19 patients, down from 296 on Sunday, and 84 in intensive care, a decline from 89 on Sunday.

Another 26 people lost their lives due to the disease, upping the death toll to 4,252. Of those deaths logged on Monday.

Over the weekend Orange County 4th District Supervisor Doug Chaffee held a mobile point of dispensing clinic in Anaheim. Over 850 seniors received vaccinations at the event.

Chaffee is cautiously optimistic that things will continue to improve in Orange County, hinging on caution.

"We hope that is not going to be changed by one of these variants in the virus coming along," said Orange County Supervisor Doug Chaffee. "There could be a surge. It's not time to let your guard down, but at the same time you can feel good about the new numbers."

The county reopened its Disneyland mega vaccination site on Monday after spending the last few days reconfiguring it as a Point of Distribution, or POD, for the disabled. Now Disneyland will inoculate the disabled and the Anaheim Convention Center will be available for indoor service.

"We've had issues with the Disney site because of bad weather, winds, rain, so that is being converted to a drive-thru," Chaffee said. "But we continue to also do the mobile PODS."

Orange County officials are expecting to receive the new Johnson & Johnson vaccines by this week.

The numbers governing the state's tiered network for reopening the economy are updated every Tuesday, with purple being the most restrictive, red the next one up and then orange and the least-restrictive yellow. But those reports reflect numbers through Sunday, and as of that day, Orange County did not meet the criteria for the red tier.

January was the deadliest month in the pandemic with 1,340 fatalities. The death toll for December was 895, and 316 fatalities were logged in February. The December and January death toll, which reflects the holiday surge of cases, represents 52.5% of the entire death toll during the pandemic.

The county has 33.9% of its intensive care unit beds and 68% of its ventilators available.
The county also reported 5,709 tests Monday, raising the cumulative total to 3,119,356.

The county's test positivity rate improved to 3.9% from 5.4% last Tuesday, and the adjusted case rate per 100,000 on a seven-day average with a seven-day lag improved from 11.9 to 7.6.
To get to the red tier, the county has to have a case rate per 100,000 population of 4 to 7, a positivity rate of 5% to 8% and a Health Equity Quartile rate of 5.3% to 8%.

The red tier allows for many more businesses and organizations to reopen. For instance, retail stores could allow for half capacity instead of 25%, and museums, zoos and aquariums could reopen for indoor activities at 25% capacity, as could movie theaters, gyms and restaurants.
Outbreaks -- defined as two or more confirmed cases within the past two weeks -- have declined significantly in the county's nursing homes, with just two skilled nursing facilities and three elderly assisted living facilities in that metric as of Wednesday.

The county must hang on to its case rates and positivity rates through next Sunday to graduate to the red tier. County officials are still targeting March 17 as the date it would be able to reopen more businesses.

This year, as opposed to last year when the pandemic was new, restaurants that serve alcohol will have the opportunity to be open on St. Patrick's Day. Still, officials caution against gathering in large groups.

On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom gave theme parks a path to reopening, with a projected reopening date of April 1, however that date is up to Orange County's Knott's Berry Farm and Disneyland Resort, who could pause a full reopening until the county reaches a less restrictive orange tier.

Read: 5 Things To Know About Disneyland Reopening

City News Service, Patch Editor Ashley Ludwig contributed to this report.