DANA POINT COVID-19 COMMUNITY UPDATE JANUARY 22 Check our Facebook Page for the latest updates.
City:Introducing Hugs for Heroes, a cooperative effort that includes Mission Hospital’s Patient Experience Team, Capo Cares, Capo Beach Church, the City of Dana Point, community volunteers and participating restaurants. The program sends some much needed “hugs” to our pandemic “heroes”.
Want to participate?
Meal Program – Make donations to Hugs for Heroes through Capo Beach Church, using the following link: https://www.capobeachchurch.com/hugs-for-heroes/ to buy restaurant meals for frontline healthcare workers. Meals are a nominal $15 each (an average of lunch and dinner prices) including individual packaging and delivery.
Snack and Appreciation Note Program – Please drop off notes of appreciation and encouragement, plus bulk, individually wrapped, unrefrigerated snacks at the Dana Point Community Center, Monday to Friday 8 AM to 4 PM. Notes and snacks will be collected from the Community Center weekly and delivered to Mission Hospital.
Please join the City and the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce in supporting our local restaurant community through the “rally for restaurants”. Order take out or delivery, purchase gift cards and post positive reviews. For a list of restaurants in our community with a link to their menu, please click here.
Come by City Hall or the Dana Point Community Center to get your free 2021 Dana Point Community Calendar. This year’s theme is Pets of Dana Point.
County: The City is supporting the County’s effort to establish regional vaccine Super Points-of-Dispensing, or Super PODs, which will allow them to vaccinate thousands of residents and workers each day throughout the county. The County opened the first Super POD site at Disneyland and will be opening its second regional COVID-19 Vaccine Super Point of Dispensing (POD) site at Soka University in Aliso Viejo tomorrow, Saturday, January 23, 2021, starting at 8:00 am.
Orange County is moving quickly to make the COVID-19 vaccination available; however, the County faces ongoing supply limitations. The Orange County Health Care Agency is continuously requesting more doses from the State every day.
Vaccines at Super POD sites are by appointment only, individuals must be eligible within Phase 1A, or be part of first responders in high risk communities, or be 65 years or older.Vaccination scheduling for the Super PODs has been simplified. Eligible individuals under Phase 1A (all tiers) who are registered in the Othena system, including persons age 65 and older, will receive an e-mail to schedule a vaccination appointment. Simply register at www.othena.com and you will be e-mailed when an appointment is available. The vaccination experience at County Super PODs typically takes 45-60 minutes per person. It is not necessary to arrive more than 15-20 minutes before your scheduled appointment. Anyone who received their 1st vaccine dose through the Othena system (starting January 6) will automatically receive their 2nd dose appointment confirmation through Othena.
Three hospital systems in the County (Kaiser Permanente, Providence St. Joseph and UCI Health) are also receiving vaccines to administer to individuals in their systems. Everyone who received their 1st dose through their health system, employer, or other group will receive the 2nd dose from the same source.
Again, vaccines are by appointment only. Anyone showing up without an appointment will be turned away.
The 5th District Small Business Grant Relief Program, sponsored by Supervisor Lisa A. Bartlett, will open applications on February 1st at 9:00am. This $2 million Small Business Grant Relief Program will support small businesses and nonprofit organizations (501c3 and 501c19), within the 5th Supervisorial District, impacted by COVID-19 by providing $10,000 (flat rate, single payment) awards to qualifying applicants. Awards will be made on a first come, first served basis. Awardees will be reimbursed for eligible expenses incurred from March 2020-present (as long as other relief program funds were not received for the same expense). More information can be found here.
The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has established a hotline to report individuals or businesses they suspect of engaging in price gouging or any other COVID-19-related scam. The Orange County District Attorney Coronavirus Scam Hotline is (714) 834-3482. Reports can also be emailed to reportascam@da.ocgov.com. Read more here.
The County has also created the “Vaccines Administered in OC” dashboard, found here. They anticipate being able to add additional details when more robust data is received from the State.
An at-home COVID-19 saliva-based testing kit is available to all county residents. Individuals that live in Orange County can register online by visiting the Health Care Agency’s website here and clicking the Ambry link to request to have a kit shipped to their home. Home delivery kits contain detailed instructions on collecting the saliva specimen, as well as how to package and return the kit to the lab for testing. Results of the test should be provided to you within a few days. If you register and select to pick up your testing kit at a community clinic, those locations are also listed on their website here.
For the latest information on the number of cases, positivity rate and more for COVID-19 in Orange County visit: occovid19.ochealthinfo.com.
Call OC Health Care Agency Health Referral Line 1(833) 426-6411 for inquiries related to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in Orange County.
State: California, as of Wednesday, had administered 38% of its 4.2 million doses of vaccine, ranking 45th nationwide in the number of doses administered per capita.The issues appear to be due in part to technical problems. Nearly two weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a goal of vaccinating 1 million Californians in 10 days, the State is unable to determine if he met the goal due to a series of coding errors and data collection problems.
State Officials announced the Latest COVID-19 Facts, found here. Among other updates, the Southern California regionremains under the Stay at Home Order; four-week ICU capacity projections do not meet criteria to exit the order.
Governor Newsom announced Golden State Stimulus, a budget proposal to help low-income Californians through $600 rapid cash payments. He has also called for an extension of the eviction moratorium and expediting distribution of California’s $2.6 billion share of federal rental assistance to assist low-income tenants. Read about it here.
Governor Newsom previewed his Equitable Recovery for California’s Businesses and Jobs plan, the business and workforce recovery elements of his 2021-22 State Budget that will help California through the COVID-19 pandemic and advance an equitable, broad-based recovery. The plan calls for immediate action to support small businesses, including $575 million on top of the $500 million previously allocated to California’s Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant, bringing total support to more than $1 billion. Learn more here.
The State is promoting “Vaccine All 58” to safely and equitably distribute COVID-19 vaccines to all 58 counties in the State. Read more about California’s plan here.
Federal: President Biden has outlined his COVID-19 Plan and signed 10 Executive Orders to increase vaccinations and testing, and mandating masks for travel. There are 5 main points to his vaccination plan: Get more people vaccinated, create more vaccination sites, increase supply and distribute quickly, mobilize more personnel who are qualified to give vaccines, and ensure the American people have the information and confidence they need to get vaccinated.
Still in discussions is the $1.9 trillion economic relief and COVID response package. The package is being introduced less than a month after Congress passed the $900 billion stimulus package.
Services and Resources Directory is now housed on the COVID-19 page on the City’s website. New services and resources will be shared in this update, then moved over to the City’s COVID-19 webpage. You can access that information here.
