A large-scale vaccination site based at a Disneyland parking lot reopened March 8 as a drive-thru only immunization hub reserved for the disabled.
The super point of dispensing (POD) is offering in-car vaccinations for those with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) placards. It previously functioned as a walk-up site
“It’s expanding our ability to give out the shots because only half mile away is the [Anaheim] convention center, which is now the major POD for everybody.” Supervisor Doug Chaffee told The Epoch Times.
“If we have the ADA people in a drive thru, we can treat them according to their needs and it won’t delay things.”
The Disneyland POD site will dispense up to 2,000 Moderna vaccinations per day.
Individuals meeting the ADA requirements must make an Othena appointment and display a disability placard on their vehicle or license plate.
Othena will soon be updated to allow people requesting ADA accessibility to see which vaccination sites offer in-car vaccinations.
“We’re grateful that our local disabilities rights advocates have engaged in conversations with us to help us improve our POD sites,” Chaffee said in an earlier press release. “My office has met with the Dayle McIntosh Center and discussed many of the areas in which we could improve ADA-access, and I’m pleased that the County has swiftly responded to their requests.”
Changing the Disneyland site to an ADA-only option allows for staff and volunteers “to provide basic disability etiquette training for individuals who can provide disability who can provide disability support at all or specific sites in the County,” the release said.
The county’s two other super PODs, one at the Anaheim Convention Center and the other at Soka University in Aliso Viejo, will be providing vaccines for Orange County residents who do not require ADA assistance.
There is also a vaccine POD at the Santa Ana College, which reopened on March 3 to vaccinate eligible individuals within Santa Ana, Garden Grove, and Anaheim.
Individuals under phases 1A and 1B—including people 65 and older, educators, food service workers, grocery, and agriculture workers, child care providers, and emergency services—are eligible to receive vaccinations.
Supervisor Andrew Do said the latest initiative will help eliminate barriers.
“The county is constantly looking for ways to improve our vaccine distribution efforts,” Do said in a press release. “Adding drive-thru capabilities to our Disneyland POD site ensures increased accessibility for those living with disabilities. From the start, equity has been the guiding principle of our approach to getting Orange County vaccinated, this modification to our process was done with equity top of mind.”
