Orange County's website for making vaccine appointments is now available in Vietnamese and Spanish.
The county opened up appointments for people 65 and older on Jan. 12, but it wasn't until last week that the site, Othena, became available in Spanish. This week, it became available in Vietnamese.
Orange County is home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam and one-quarter of county residents are native Spanish speakers.
Spanish language version of https://t.co/VMdBmZYqsB available now by clicking on “English” at the top of the page & then selecting “Español.” Vietnamese language version is coming soon. Updates to Othena app are currently in the works to include both languages. #OCCOVID19
— OC Health Care Agency (@ochealth) February 4, 2021
Orange County Health Care Agency Director Dr. Clayton Chau told the county Board of Supervisors Tuesday that while 15% of the senior population in the county is Latino, only 10% of the 100,000 or so seniors who've been vaccinated so far at county sites are Latino.
Chau said the county is currently concentrating vaccination efforts on lower-income, predominantly Latino neighborhoods:
"Mainly the zip codes in Santa Ana, Anaheim and Garden Grove have a higher percentage dying from COVID, if they get it. And so our effort working with the community is really this next two weeks to vaccinate our seniors in those areas."
The hotline for making vaccine appointments in Orange County has Spanish and Vietnamese options in addition to English. That phone number is 714-834-2000.
Step-by-step instructions on how to register with Othena are available in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Korean and Chinese (simplified)
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