Hillsborough Begins Effort To Vaccinate Home-Bound Residents

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, FL — Hillsborough County health officials will begin providing vaccinations to home-bound residents.

Tim Dudley, director of Emergency Management for Hillsborough County said the county plans to visit the homes of those residents age 65 and up who are unable to travel to a vaccination site because they are bedridden, disabled, have social phobias or have no transportation and aren't able to pay for transportation to a vaccination site.

Dudley said the fire rescue paramedics and Hillsborough County Department of Health staff are setting up a mobile unit that will travel to the homes of about 24 residents a day to administer vaccinations. Eventually, Dudley said the county will expand the mobile program to about 60 a day.

The home-bound residents will be selected through the Florida Emergency Management Division's Special Needs Registry and Hillsborough County Aging Services' client list. Seniors age 65 and up can register for the Special Needs Registry here.

In the meantime, lawmakers are working on ways to relieve the traffic congestion around the state-run University Square Mall vaccination site in Tampa.

Hillsborough County Commission Chairwoman Pat Kemp said she and fellow commissioners were inundated with phone calls and emails from seniors complaining about the long wait times to be vaccinated at the University Square Mall, currently the only state-run vaccination site in Hillsborough County.

"People were describing a five-hour wait," said Kemp, adding that cars were lined up along Fowler Avenue.

Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera said the lines have also hurt the businesses in the area because it's difficult for customers to access them.

Dudley said the state is using Florida Highway Patrol troopers, Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies and Tampa Police to control traffic. In addition, the state has reduced the number of appointments it offers each day to reduce the number of cars lined up.

In addition, he said the state is looking for a second vaccination site.

As of Wednesday, 54,937 people have been vaccinated in Hillsborough County with 54,258 receiving a second dose.

Dr. Doug Holt, director of the Department of Health in Hillsborough County, said the county's Targeted Vaccine Area initiative has played a crucial role in vaccinating eligible seniors.

"It's been a very successful program," he said.

TVAs include churches, senior living facilities and retirement communities that work with the county to set up vaccine clinics for seniors age 65 and over. The TVAs provide a list of eligible seniors, volunteers to help with the clinics and enough room to host either a walk-up or a drive-thru clinic.

Using TVAs and the state-run site at University Square Mall, Hillsborough County has been able to vaccinate 15,000 to 18,000 people a week, said Holt.

As of Feb. 13, the county hosted 25 TVAs; the city of Tampa arranged one TVA; and the state organized two TVAs with help from the University of South Florida Health, Hillsborough Community College, Tampa General Hospital and the Tampa Housing Authority.

The TVAs have provided first doses to 14,500 seniors and second doses to more than 1,650 seniors.

This week, there were 15 TVAs in Plant City, Apollo Beach and Tampa, administering an estimated 1,600 doses of the vaccine.

Next week, there will be TVAs at 10 locations in Tampa and Sun City Center, administering about 1,200 first doses and more than 5,300 second doses.

Vaccinations at TVAs are given by appointment only to eligible residents contacted by the church or retirement community.

Those wanting to get on the state's waiting list to receive a vaccination must visit myvaccine.fl.gov, select Hillsborough County and click “get in line.”

Although a number of those vaccinated in Hillsborough County have come from surrounding counties, Holt said about 9.6 percent of the eligible population in the county (which includes first responders, nursing home residents and staff and seniors age 65 and older) have been vaccinated with a first dose and about 5 percent with a second dose.

Holt told the county commission that he doesn't know how long it will take to vaccinate all the eligible senior population in the county. He said a lot depends on the supply of vaccine the county receives from the state.

"We've been disappointed with the supply over the last two months," Holt said. "It's clearly going to take a while, it's going to take months, to vaccinate all eligible seniors."

Holt said it's too soon to know if the Super Bowl in Tampa Feb. 7 will have an impact on the county's coronavirus positivity rate but, currently, the county is on a downward slope, reducing its positivity rate from about 12 percent to 7 percent.

He said hospitals, too, are reporting a "notable decrease in admissions."

Commissioners will receive the next update on coronavirus issues at their next regular meeting on Wednesday, March 3.

In the meantime, the county has extended the state of emergency including the mandate that face coverings be worn inside businesses. Wearing face coverings in outdoor areas of bars and restaurants is not required but is strongly encouraged.

As of Feb. 17, Hillsborough County had 107,806 positive cases of the coronavirus with 1,438 hospitalizations and 2,796 deaths.