On the hills of reopening after icy weather in the U.S. southeast grounded vaccine shipments, the coronavirus inoculation center at Disneyland will shut down again Thursday as blustery winds descend on Southern California.
Vaccinations resumed outside the “happiest place on Earth” Wednesday for the first time since last Thursday, when severe weather in other parts of the country resulted in a shortage of doses.
But with the National Weather Service warning of potentially damaging winds across much of Orange County from Wednesday night to Thursday afternoon, officials have decided to close the center again this Thursday.
The Disneyland vaccine site is expected to reopen Friday, so long as the winds do let up as forecast.
Those whose appointments have been affected will be rescheduled “ASAP,” Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett said in a tweet.
Earlier this week, another inoculation site opened up about a block south of the Disneyland Resort at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Going forward, the convention center location will exclusively administer the Moderna vaccine. Anyone who got their first Moderna shot at Disneyland will get their second dose in Anaheim, according to a county news release.
Meanwhile, the Disneyland site this week started using the Pfizer vaccine for both first and second doses.
The Anaheim center is the third massive vaccine site operated by the county, following those at Disneyland and in Aliso Viejo at Soka University.
Currently, vaccine appointments are only available to county residents age 65 and older, various types of health care workers and first responders who work in high-risk communities. But county officials say they’ll begin scheduling appointments for other types of essential workers “once vaccine supply is confirmed.”
Meanwhile, Disneyland Resort is also shifting back into ticketed experiences.
The park on Wednesday announced “A Touch of Disney” will begin at California Adventure on March 18, offering fans the opportunity to reenter parts of the park for the first time in nearly a year to foods and beverages, character experiences and other offerings.
This comes as Orange County officials say they are moving closer to advancing to the red tier, or the second-most restrictive tier, in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s reopening plan.
The county’s test positivity rate, 5.4%, and health equity quartile positivity rate, 7%, both meet the standard for entering the red tier. But the adjusted daily case rate per 100,000, which sits at 11.9, remains above the red tier requirement of 7 or below.
“We’re dropping approximately a half a point to a point every day,” Orange County CEO Frank Kim said. “So will those trends continue? You know, I don’t have a crystal ball but I would say the trend is positive and I think we’re going to be very close.”
If the case rate drops by Sunday, the county could hear from the state by Tuesday that it’s on the way to the red tier. But those metrics would still have to maintain in range for two weeks before the county could advance.