IRVINE, Calif. — A new partnership among Irvine, Santa Ana, Tustin and Costa Mesa will provide roughly 4,000 more daily vaccines for area residents.
The health system nonprofit Providence partnered with Edwards Lifesciences to add two vaccination sites. One will be located at the Great Park in Irvine and the other, which opened April 22, will be at 3009 Daimler St. in Santa Ana.
“This really came out of our conversations in the COVID-19 task force,” said Irvine Mayor Farah Khan, who helped create the relationship with Providence.
Edwards Lifesciences stepped in with a $500,000 donation to help establish the Santa Ana location.
Irvine has been creating partnerships to target people who may need a vaccine, but may not know how to register. The city has been using the Lakeview Senior Center as a vaccination site while using city staff to help get seniors signed up. The program has run roughly every weekend since late February and vaccinated approximately 1,800 people.
This new partnership taps into a state vaccine supply that Providence had been looking to distribute more efficiently.
“They wanted to be in areas they hadn’t been in before. So we were able to set up a deal with them,” Khan said. “It’s just really exciting to have this public-private partnership.”
Irvine has not been as hard hit by the coronavirus as other cities have been. The city has logged just a 3.6% positivity rate. Santa Ana has been hit much harder with 13.6% or residents drawing a positive test result.
Providence has administered more than 250,000 doses and has access to all three approved vaccines.
Vaccinations are by appointment only and can be scheduled online at myturn.ca.gov. For people without internet access, a 7-day-a-week call center is available to register people and can be reached at 1-833-422- 4255.
The Great Park vaccination site will open Monday, April 26, and is located at 8000 Great Park Blvd.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the donor of $500,000 to a vaccine clinic in Santa Ana. Edwards Lifesciences is the donor. The story has been updated. (April 23, 2021)