A California woman in her 30s who said she's a Disney employee said she got the coronavirus vaccine, while the state is being overwhelmed by a surge in cases

• A woman who said she's a Disney employee in her early 30s said in a Facebook post that she received a vaccine from a California hospital with the help of family connections, The Orange County Register reported over the weekend.
• The hospital said in a statement to Insider that "several doses were administered to non-front line healthcare workers so that valuable vaccine would not be thrown away."
• Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities have been the first to receive coronavirus vaccines, as recommended by a US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee.

A woman in her early 30s who said she works for Disney said she received a coronavirus vaccine from a hospital in California, according to a local report, while the state struggles with an overwhelming surge in cases.

The woman said in a Facebook post that she received a vaccine from Redlands Community Hospital in Southern California with the help of family connections, The Orange County Register reported over the weekend. The Register did not name the woman and said she had taken down the Facebook post.

The hospital said in a statement to Insider that "there were several doses left" after frontline staffers were given the vaccines. It added that "because the reconstituted Pfizer vaccine must be used within hours or be disposed of, several doses were administered to non-front line healthcare workers so that valuable vaccine would not be thrown away."

Read more: 5 public-health experts told us what the US needs to do right now to get COVID-19 under control

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee has recommended that healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first to receive coronavirus vaccines, while people older than 75 and frontline essential workers should be the next group.

But those are merely recommendations; states decide who's next in line for the vaccines. Florida and Texas are vaccinating people older than 65 over younger frontline essential workers, splitting from the CDC's recommendation, Business Insider's Aylin Woodward reported on Monday. A Kaiser Family Foundation report published earlier this month said seven states departed from the CDC's recommendations for the first phase of vaccinations.

Meanwhile, at least 30,000 new cases have been reported daily in California since mid-December, according to The COVID Tracking Project. Hospitals that are running out of space have set up tents to take in more patients.

The state has recorded more than 2 million coronavirus cases and more than 24,000 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

• Read more:
• Florida and Texas have started vaccinating people 65 and older against the coronavirus, breaking with CDC guidelines
• LA's super-wealthy are offering clinics $25,000 for priority access to coronavirus vaccines, doctors say
• Running out of space, hospitals in California are setting up tents and trailers to take in patients
• Healthcare workers and long-term-care facility residents should get a coronavirus vaccine first, according to US health officials