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3 new vaccination sites opening in Riverside County to provide more access for residents

Registered nurses help transfer the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine from a bottle into a syringe ready for vaccination at the Corona High School gymnasium in the Riverside County city of Corona, California on January 15, 2021, a day after California began offering the coronavirus vaccine to residents 65 and older. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)

Riverside County is adding more COVID-19 vaccination sites, and making other location changes, to better serve the community, officials said Monday.

“The changes that are planned will help provide vaccines in locations where they are needed and give greater access to residents in those communities,” Kim Saruwatari, director of Riverside Public Health, said in a news release.

The changes include adding three new vaccination sites, operated by OptumServe, which are scheduled to open Wednesday in Norco, Temecula and Desert Hot Springs. The site administering vaccines at the Lake Elsinore Stadium will also expand its hours from Thursday through Monday, after previously operating twice a week.

“We are excited to have more vaccine sites open for our residents to get vaccinated as quickly as possible and closer to their communities,” Supervisor Karen Spiegel said. “These vaccines are working to protect our residents and help our community recover from this disease.” 

Additionally, the Corona High School vaccine site will close on Friday and the staff from that location will be assigned to a new vaccine clinic in Moreno Valley, which will be announced soon. Officials said anyone who received their first dose at Corona High School will be notified when and where to receive their second dose. 

Starting Tuesday, the Perris Fairgrounds vaccination site will be converted to a COVID-19 testing site, which will be open seven days a week. The Indio Fairgrounds vaccine site will also be converted from a county operation to a Curative-run location.

To make an appointment at a county-run clinic, or those operated by Curative or OptumServe in Riverside County, visit rivcoph.org/covid-19-vaccine. Appointment links to the new clinics will be posted to the website as soon as they are available.