Covid Information

Watch how to sign ‘covid’ in American Sign Language

Note to DMC Consumers: DMC has a mask policy always in effect at our location. If you are coming in for an appointment, we ask that you adhere to our protocol of wearing a KN95 or N95 mask. If you do not have one, you will be provided one upon arrival. DMC is a peer-based organization of people with disabilities and older adults and we take great care of making sure our Team, consumers, and the community we serve remains healthy and safe.

Thank you in advance for respecting our policy!

Important Update for the 2025-2026 Respiratory Surge Season:

Each year as we transition from summer to fall and into the winter months, DMC wants to remind our community that we are a high-risk group being a peer-led organization serving the same.

To keep you safe and ourselves safe in order to continue serving our community, we ask each individual to take into consideration their own well-being to protect yourself and others through your vigilant safety mindfulness.

Last Year, we faced, The Quad-demic is an illness season combining COVID, RSV, Influenza (which are part of the triple-demic respiratory season) with the fourth Norovirus (stomach/gastrointestinal).

We at DMC want to remind our community that depending on massive travel and other areas which have relaxed their own protocol, only heightens risk for our higher-risk community of people with disabilities and older adults. Norovirus, RSV, Influenza and multiple other illnesses compound the risk factors for our community specifically so staying safe, healthy and having awareness is key to prevention.

Learn more about Norovirus here: Norovirus https://www.cdc.gov/norovirus/prevention/index.html

There are no vaccinations for Norovirus. But COVID boosters still exist and are available.

Please see the below important information and links to keep our highest at-risk community of people with disabilities and older adults educated and informed. These boosters cover the JN.1 Omicron and KP variants which are actively surging.

Planning ahead for your booster, if you haven’t already, contact your local health care provider for your most immediate and available resource. You can also go to your local pharmacy and get your vaccine: Walgreens and CVS Locations have boosters. Call ahead if you need specific information or go to their websites to schedule.

For those of you sticking with your brand of Pfizer or Moderna – call before you go to see which one the location carries as not all vaccination locations will have both.

COVID Testing Information: https://www.cdc.gov/covid/testing/

COVID Wastewater Data is your friend. Since not everyone is doing continuous COVID testing – we have very limited data these days as to gauging our COVID surge solely from hospitalizations, ER visits and those who proactively take COVID tests alone.

Do you want to know surges as they happen across the State of California week to week? Check out the links below.

COVID, RSV and Influenza Wastewater Data

Here is the Current Wastewater Data for COVID in California:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID19-statetrend.html?stateval=California

Here is the California Department of Public Health Wastewater Tracker https://skylab.cdph.ca.gov/calwws/

Here is the Current Wastewater Data for RSV in California:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/RSV-statetrend.html?stateval=California

Here is the Current Wastewater Data for Influenza A:
https://www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/InfluenzaA-statetrend.html?stateval=California

Air Quality Data for respiratory seasonal surges: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6a6a058a177440fdac6be881d41d4c2c/?id=3d51b5d2fc8d42d9af8c04f3c00f88d3

Learn more about the COVID + Influenza respiratory illness combination here (You can ‘interact’ with it to monitor California) : https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/data/index.html

Seek Respiratory Virus Guidance: https://www.cdc.gov/respiratory-viruses/guidance/index.html

For Influenza information during respiratory COVID + Influenza virus season, you can learn about updated guidelines from the World Health Organization (WHO)

https://www.who.int/news/item/13-09-2024-who-updates-influenza-care-guidelines–includes-recommendations-for-viruses-with-pandemic-potential

Learn more about RSV here: https://www.ochealthinfo.com/rsv

2025-2026 Updates to Testing, Vaccines and Treatments:

For current OC’s COVID Resources: CLICK HERE

For California Department of Public Health Influenza and COVID information go HERE

TIPS for Staying Healthy (English)

TIPS for Staying Healthy (Spanish)

In 2021, Long COVID was recognized as a disability and is recognized under the protection of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There are 500,000 people living in Orange County who are disabled (which accounts for a portion of that number who do not realize Long COVID is a disability). The COVID-19 pandemic grew the disability community with the number of positive cases at the end of 2023 YTD positive cases exceeding 800,344 cases in total (which continues to grow) but are not being tracked YTD in 2025-2026, many individuals in this data are those whom now live with Long-COVID

This number continues to grow weekly, despite several rounds of vaccinations being made available to the public. This is due to the fact people with disabilities, those with pre-existing conditions and older adults are the highest risk, as are those with underlying illnesses, those most vulnerable with recent injury/surgery recovery, immunocompromised individuals, those who have had COVID before experiencing complications and many others. For numerous members of the community – there has to be a new way of living life due to this risk, and those who are new members of the disability community.

The Dayle McIntosh Center (DMC) is a non-profit organization that focuses on core services and serves as hub organization with many referral resources, programs, and partners.

We believe information is power and are sharing the below vital resources available: