Second Round Of Vaccine Appointments Fills Up Within 30 Minutes

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — Within 30 minutes of the Department of Health in Sarasota County opening registration for its second round of coronavirus vaccinations Wednesday afternoon, it reached capacity and appointments were no longer available.

Registration for the appointments, which are scheduled between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, opened around 3:45 p.m. Wednesday for seniors 65 and older and frontline health care workers. By 4:15 p.m., though, there weren’t any appointments left. About 400 vaccine doses were available in this round of vaccinations, G. Steve Huard, public information officer, said.

Sarasota County has received 3,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine, he said. The DOH first offered appointments for the free vaccine Tuesday afternoon. Those appointments, scheduled Tuesday from 2 to 6 p.m. and Wednesday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., also filled up quickly in less than an hour. About 400 vaccines were administered both days, he said.

Huard said he’s not surprised by appointments filling up so fast.

“There’s been a lot of news in recent days that the vaccine was going to be arriving and that it has arrived,” he said. “With the amount of people that we knew would be looking for the vaccine, we’re not surprised with the level of want in the community.”

He’s also asking for patience from Sarasota residents.

“We’re just literally overwhelmed with calls at this point,” he said. “The main thing people need to understand is that we have a limited amount of vaccine and we need people to be patient as we roll out the campaign.”

Huard added, “We’re doing the best we can developing an outreach system for scheduling (appointments). We’re not set up for that on a day-to-day basis.”

Dates and times for the next round of coronavirus vaccine appointments in Sarasota County haven’t been released yet. He suggests that residents sign up for the county’s emergency alert system by texting “SRQCOVID19” to 888777. The county will send text alerts about registration for appointments is open.

The county is scheduling appointments according to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ executive order, which says the first vaccines in the state will be administered to long-term care facility residents and staff, people 65 and older and health care workers with direct patient contact, according to a DOH news release. Hospitals may also vaccinate people deemed to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19.

Florida has launched a COVID-19 Vaccine Report that will be updated daily at www.FloridaHealthCOVID19.gov. This report includes a breakdown of who has received the vaccine by age, race, sex and county.

For more information about coronavirus and its vaccinations in Sarasota County, visit www.SarasotaHealth.org.