Disneyland Vaccination Site Opens, Othena Registration Struggles

ANAHEIM, CA— Residents hoping to register for coronavirus vaccinations flooded a new online registration system designed for that purpose Wednesday as Orange County's large-scale vaccination site opened at the Disneyland Resort.

Cars lined the streets near the resort Wednesday, with residents eager for their first dose of coronavirus vaccine. But only those with appointments were allowed entry, and all others were asked to leave.

Only residents who fell in phase 1A of the county's vaccination plan were given a chance to make an appointment. Anyone in Orange County 65 years or older can register. Others who fit the phase 1A guidelines may also register for vaccination.

More than 10,000 Orange County residents scheduled COVID-19 vaccination appointments at the Disneyland Resort center overnight through the Othena.com website. Thousands more registered on the Othena system to be notified when more appointments become available. The magnitude of users caused the site to buckle Wednesday, with health officials promising to address "technical issues this large influx of visitors may have caused." As of noon, the Othena website appeared to be up and running.

At Disneyland, Orange County Health Care transformed an enormous off-site parking area into a coronavirus vaccination center, one of five planned for the county. The hope is to vaccinate up to 7,000 residents a day, officials said. Orange County spokeswoman Jessica Good said an estimated only 3,000 vaccinations would be administered on the first day of operation.

The Othena website has a question-and-answer interface and directs users to complete an informational form. As users make their way through the site, the most restrictive question asks whether or not they are 65 years old. If a user meets the age requirement, the website allows her to register. If she is not, she will be contacted when an appointment is available. Othena's app will soon be available on Google Play and is currently downloadable for Apple devices.

Throughout the day, users received intermittent notifications that the site delayed registration "due to high volumes of traffic." New user registrations were also intermittently blocked. These are the growing pains of something that has never been done before.

The volume of interest in vaccination can be seen as a positive, and many residents reached out to Patch to say they are frustrated, confused and worried about whether they will have a chance to protect themselves from the pandemic. With more than 3.2 million residents, and only a few thousand vaccinations a day, many wonder how long it will take for all to receive protection from COVID-19.

Many South County residents — especially those over the age of 80 — expressed concerns with getting to the Disneyland site and about driving a long distance for a chance to be free of coronavirus worries.

Disneyland Resort is just the first of at least five super-vaccination sites to open in the county's push toward herd immunity, according to Orange County Supervisor and acting Chairman Andrew Do.

"If you open up one more site, that's 14,000 a day," Do said. "A lot of it will depend on the number of vaccines that will be coming into Orange County. There's no point in setting up Super Point of Distribution Stations if we don't have vaccines to keep it running."

Officials need to vaccinate at least 2 million county residents to achieve the 60 to 70 percent "herd immunity" necessary to arrest the virus's spread, Do said.

As coronavirus surges across the county, testing remains essential to residents who have been exposed to COVID-19. Meanwhile, the Orange County Board of Supervisors is working to transform testing sites into vaccination centers.

Under the Orange County Health Care Agency's guidance, Orange County Fire Authority nurses and medics helped deliver the first shots to those who qualify for phase 1A vaccinations.

Those who received their vaccinations at fire authority facilities will now need to go to a large vaccination center such as Disneyland for their second dose. The county said that those in the process of being vaccinated will need to access their account on Othena and will be routed to an appropriate secondary vaccination site within 21 days.

The crossover between those who need a second shot and those receiving their first may become problematic, Do said. "How do you vaccinate 2 million people twice? That's 4 million doses," he said.

Other distribution sites have been discussed, such as Knott's Berry Farm, the OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa, the University of California, Irvine campus and Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo.

Disneyland Resort, Orange County's largest employer, has remained closed for business since the coronavirus pandemic reached Orange County in mid-March. Anaheim has suffered both health-wise and business-wise, according to officials. The city has seen some of the largest numbers of coronavirus cases in the county, and businesses that run on tourism have been brought to a standstill.

County officials hang their hopes on large-scale vaccination of Orange County's residents, and all hope this will end the ongoing shutdown that has devastated Anaheim, Orange County and much of Southern California.

Those interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine can view the phased tiers of eligibility and other important vaccination information on the county Health Care Agency's website.

Appointments are crucial so as not to overwhelm the distribution centers, the agency said. "We know the public is anxious to receive the vaccine, and we are working diligently to receive additional supplies," an agency spokesperson said. "Appointments will be available as soon as the vaccine supply exists to meet that demand."

Residents can make appointments on Othena. As of 10 a.m., the Othena website had been shut down due to "high volumes of traffic."

"I see this as our first significant step as a county to take back our county from COVID," Do said. "This is now us fighting the virus and defeating it by getting a lot of people vaccinated." It is not known how many residents have been added to their registration system.

Read also: First Hurdle: Getting Residents To Vaccinate In Orange County