TAMPA – The registration vaccination site crashed immediately after it went live in Hillsborough County on Monday morning, leaving the phone as the only option. But the callers suspended for hours, cut off the middle of the conversation or dropped it altogether.
And with only 9,000 doses of the coveted vaccine available, those living in Tampa’s most subordinate communities have never prayed. But on Sunday morning, the vaccine came to them.
The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County administered 500 doses of coronavirus vaccine to members of the St. John Progressive Missionary Baptist Church in the College Hill area of Tampa.
It is part of an effort by government Ron DeSantis to vaccinate more of the state’s most vulnerable residents by working with community centers, churches and other trust-promoting institutions.
“We really believe it’s important to make sure these vaccines get into all parts of the communities, and we think it’s one way to work with our homes of worship,” DeSantis said Sunday as he partnered with 50 largely announcing black houses of worship. in Tampa, Lynn Haven, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Jacksonville, Port St. Lucie and Tallahassee.
St. John’s is one of the seven churches where the vaccine is administered. All the churches will help sign people up for appointments to get a vaccine and help people inform people about why they should get one.
The goal is 500 vaccinations per day for every 65-year-old premises. The state will receive 250,000 shots of the two-dose vaccine this week, DeSantis said.
“No matter what’s going on in anyone’s life, you can always come to church on Sunday morning,” Tampa Mayor Jane Castor said Sunday. “What is the better place to administer this vaccine, especially to people at high risk?”
The initiative comes because DeSantis gets criticism over mixed messages or no message at all about the state’s plan to carry out the limited number of available vaccine doses. Information released his office is incomplete and sometimes other than federal data. Questions from reporters for clarity are unanswered.
Despite all the complications last week in Hillsborough, health officials distributed 9,000 doses of the vaccine, Dr. Douglas Holt, director of the Florida Department of Health, said. They planned for 1,500.
The extra doses come from Tampa General Hospital, according to him – a welcome surprise, but one that has revealed the limitations of the coronavirus call center in the country.
The province has hired a new contractor to offer a larger number of calls, Holt said. He expected another 9,000 doses of vaccine to be available this week. Where and when has yet to be finalized.
“The vaccine supply still drives everything,” he said. ‘Rest assured, there will be no vaccine left. If it comes to this country, we will remove it. ‘
Since Dec. 27, the day provinces in Florida received the first load of coronavirus vaccination, Hillsborough County has vaccinated 26,777 people, the report said. Of these, 3,869 received the second shot in the two-dose vaccination.
By Sunday afternoon, health officials had administered the coronavirus vaccine to 558,326 people around the world, and 38,409 of them had completed the two-shot series.
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