Registration Complete For 1st 3K Vaccines; County Lends A Hand

PINELLAS COUNTY, FL — Despite some frustrating technical glitches, the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas has completed preregistration for the first 3,000 vaccines, all the doses sent to the Pinellas County to date.

The DOH, a state agency, is teaming up with Pinellas County government to alleviate future vaccination hurdles. A joint effort is now underway to identify a reliable preregistration platform that will make it easy for people to sign up to receive the coronavirus vaccine when more is available.

"We completely understand the public frustration over our overwhelmed web and phone systems yesterday, and are working around the clock to ensure we can provide a much better experience," said Dr. Ulyee Choe, Florida DOH-Pinellas director.

The state health agency also said Pinellas County Government has submitted a plan for state approval that would open up four additional vaccination sites for those 65 and over. The sites would be run by fire paramedics who have already completed the necessary training in anticipation of the requested state approval.

"The Florida Department of Health vaccination sites are only a small part of the vaccination rollout," said Pinellas County Administrator Barry A. Burton."In a county of approximately 250,000 people who are 65 or older, a state distribution of 3,000 vaccines is only a start. While we're waiting for the full rollout plan to come from the state, we're ready to stand up our sites as a stop-gap as soon as the state approves our plan and provides us the vaccines."

Burton said the additional sites are designed to help in the short-term while the state finalizes its comprehensive vaccination rollout plan. That plan is anticipated to include private partners, hospitals and community organizations. The state of Florida is in charge of the overall plan, as well as the vaccine distribution.

Burton also said the county has launched its own vaccination resource page to ensure residents have a central point for vaccine information, FAQs and vaccination sites as they come online. The page is also available in Spanish.

"We want to help the state where we can," Burton said. "We will continue to work with our Florida Department of Health-Pinellas and state partners to help our residents."

The Florida Department of Health-Pinellas is a state agency, which is run separately from the Pinellas County Government, which is the local county government organization.