Irvine City Council members continue to tout the availability of Irvine city spaces, specifically the Orange County Great Park, as a potential host for a Super POD (point of distribution) vaccination site in Irvine.

On Tuesday, Jan. 12, the Irvine City Council voted unanimously to extend the city’s free COVID-19 testing program until Feb. 25, as city leaders strongly backed the need for a Super POD in Irvine.

Irvine Mayor Farrah Khan said she has seen a greater demand for the vaccine than expected, and said the City Council wants to ensure everything can be done for residents seeking the vaccine in Irvine and the surrounding cities.

“Our goal is to get everyone in the county vaccinated by July 4th and there’s a larger demand for the vaccine than we thought there would be – which is great,” Khan said in an interview with Irvine Weekly. “At the same time, we’re waiting on the state to deliver the vaccines to us, so that we have enough.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief  Shane Sherwood provided an update on Super PODs and vaccination distribution to the council.

According to Sherwood, Orange County’s July goal is part of Operation Independence, the unified command partnership between Orange County and OCFA, which is heading the deployment and oversight of the county’s points of distribution (PODs) for the COVID-19 vaccine.

However, Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim questioned Sherwood about the delays, adding that she had knowledge of Irvine residents experiencing a two-hour wait for the vaccine.

Sherwood said there is constant, high-level county prioritization of the Othena App.

“I know there’s been several 24-hour days of working on the Othena App,” Sherwood said. “In fact, I’m told that Jeff Bezos himself has gotten involved in making sure this is an effective tool and it does exactly what we need it to – which is to provide the schedules and allow our communities to have access.”

Sherwood also acknowledged the technical issues within the Othena App, but would not attribute any traffic delays to the app itself.

“I can’t say for certain that all the traffic was because of the Othena App, but there’s been countless hours put into it,” he said.

After Sherwood’s update, Khan and several members of the council took the opportunity to emphasize the city of Irvine’s availability to host a Super POD at the Great Park.

In a phone call with Irvine Weekly, Khan said it was the council’s chance to get some face time with OCFA, as most discussions regarding the placement of Super PODs has taken place at the city manager level.

“For us, it was our time to really share that as a council, we were behind this 100 percent, that we were going to provide them [OC/OCFA] with not only the space, but we also had volunteers they were looking for, to support the site.”

Irvine has experience with these logistically challenging undertakings, adding that Irvine could provide the space, and also provide the volunteers needed to help distribute the vaccine in Orange County.

“We are the first in the county to provide [COVID-19] testing – that wasn’t a county site, that was a city site that we set up,” she said in a phone call with Irvine Weekly. “So we know how to handle situations like this.”

Echoing the mayor, City Council member Mike Carroll said he hopes the success of the county’s first city-based COVID-19 testing site in Irvine will help spotlight Irvine’s ability to take on mass vaccination with a Super POD at the Great Park.

“We would just really hope to be considered as a prime location,” Carroll said. “I believe I speak for us all, when I say we’d really like to see that at the Great Park, being a central location for the county.”

The city of Irvine has led Orange County in many ways since the pandemic began. In July, as Khan referenced, it became the first city to offer free COVID-19 testing for those living and working in the city.

More recently, Mayor Khan established a pair of dual city-based COVID-19 Task Force teams, that will aim at economic recovery and vaccine distribution.

Irvine’s efforts may be paying off.

A report presented by Irvine’s Assistant City Manager Michelle Grettenberg at Tuesday’s meeting shows that Irvine has the lowest COVID-19 rates per capita, compared to surrounding cities.

“Irvine continues to have the lowest per-capita rate of COVID-19 compared to cities closest and similar in population. The next cities have a rate approximately 20 percent higher than Irvine,” Grettenberg said. “This is a testament to the city’s support of the community, and our residents pledge to support mitigation measures to ensure the health and safety of our city.”

With COVID-19 vaccinations currently underway at multiple POD sites in Orange County, including Disneyland, Khan said she expects the county to monitor the first Super POD site, before adding more.

While Orange County has yet to announce a second location for a Super POD, Irvine City Manager Marianna Marysheva said she is engaged in daily discussions with the Orange County Fire Authority.

Marysheva explained the city of Irvine had been working with the county to determine if there would be a suitable location for a Super POD site in the city, including at the Great Park.

“We initially offered outdoor space of the Great Park, where we currently have testing. The county reached out to us for an indoor space. Since then we have had at least a couple of tours with OCFA to check that particular location, and specifically we’re talking about the hanger space, that is close to the visitor center, and the carousel and the fine arts center at the Great Park,” Marysheva explained. “We’re at the point where we’ve provided a possible suitable location that would meet the needs of OCFA. The county is aware of our strong interest in having vaccinations happen at the Great Park.”

On Monday, Jan. 12, Orange County announced the establishment of the first regional Super POD site at Disneyland Resort, in Anaheim. Super PODs, part of Operation Independence, will become the county’s major point of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, capable of vaccinating thousands of people a day.

Despite on-going technical issues with O.C.’s Othena App, the application being utilized to schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointment, the county has been able to register 10,000 residents for appointments, as of Jan. 14. 

“I know people may have a hard time getting through [the Othena App], because the volume of people trying to get appointments is so high, that the system can be overloaded – the server can only handle so many calls, then sometimes it crashes,” First District Supervisor Andrew Do said during press conference at Disneyland. “Be patient. If it’s not available today, try again in the future. We are working on the technical side to increase the bandwidth, to get people in – to at least let them know that we have them in the system.”

Currently, Orange County has three smaller PODs, one located at the Irvine-based Orange County Fire Authority Headquarters, and the other two in Huntington Beach and Anaheim.

The Orange County Health Care Agency COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force is now working to vaccinate all tiers within the Phase 1A population, which includes high risk health care personnel, along with senior citizens 65 years and older.

As of Jan. 8, the HCA’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force has distributed a total of 56,099 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine in the county.

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