COVID-19 vaccine rollout has begun
by Ruth Osborn
rutho_news@lwsb.com
When word came Friday that Leisure World would be given its first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the GRF revved into high gear to get registration packets out to every unit over the weekend, set up an appointment call center and organize LW’s first two-day vaccine clinic. It was held on Monday and Tuesday.
Care Ambulance, LW’s 911 ambulance provider, and OptumCare at the HCC teamed up to ensure Leisure World residents would start getting the COVID-19 vaccine in community clinics.
The whirlwind rollout was not without obstacles, including jammed appointment lines and crashed Internet and phone systems, but 900 residents got their COVID- 19 vaccines.
Since November, GRF Executive Director Randy Ankeny and his staff have been working with the Orange County Health Care Agency and other community leaders to designate LW as a Point of Distribution (POD) site for the COVID-19 vaccine. That designation paves the way for vaccine to begin flowing into LW as it becomes available. The GRF team working with OptumCare and others expected a February vaccine rollout.
But Friday, OptumCare told the GRF that vaccine was on its way to LW, and it had to be used by Tuesday. The scramble to make it happen was on.
Carriers for Eagle Rock Express, owned by Dan Pomeroy, usually deliver the LW Weekly on Wednesdays, but on Friday, they were mobilized for a special delivery of COVID-19 registration packets, two to each unit. The five-page packets were printed in the GRF Copy and Supply Center by Distribution employees Wendi Noble and Cindy Maiden. They copied more 13,216 packets, working until after 11 p.m., Friday, and back at it on Saturday at 7:30 a.m., despite it being a three-day weekend.
After packets were bundled, Pomeroy trundled box after box to the Amphitheater, where 22 carriers, most of them LW residents, stood by to deliver them. Deliveries began Friday afternoon, went into the night and continued Sunday.
“People were waiting for them,” said carrier Sybil Tanabe of Mutual 15. She delivers to mutuals 12 and 14. “They knew the packets were coming, and they were so happy to get them.”
At noon on Saturday, the call center was opened in Clubhouse 3. Within one minute, the system crashed as thousands of residents dialed and redialed hundreds of times. According to Assistant Recreation Manager Kathy Thayer, 83,000 calls were attempted; 20,000 of those made it through the system, which crashed immediately. “We could not capture the calls. It killed the Internet, burned up our modem and even shut down all GRF calls for a while,” she said.
Once Spectrum worked out the kinks, three GRF staffers stayed to take calls till 10 p.m. Saturday, said Thayer. She and others were also “manually pulling numbers that we could see, trying to call them on our own cells to book appointments,” said Thayer.
GRF staff booked 200 appointments in two hours on Saturday night, completing the 400 slots allotted for Monday’s clinic. Staffers returned Sunday at 8 a.m. and booked 400 appointments in three hours for Tuesday’s clinic.
On Monday, residents began receiving the long-awaited vaccinations. Security and Seal Beach police officers were at the clinic to monitor traffic and confirm
People line up at the registration table prior to getting their COVID-19 vaccinations.
Mercy Hightower, daughter of HCC nurse Jane Hightower, and several other young people volunteered to welcome residents and help them find their way.
GRF staffers Wendi Noble and Cindy Maiden spent much of a holiday weekend at the copy machines so residents would have the required registration packets in time for shot clinics.
