| Pensacola News Journal
Santa Rosa County and the Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola have both announced their plans to distribute thousands of vaccines to people 65 and older this week.
Ascension Sacred Heart will have two “mass vaccinations” events, one in Milton and one in Pensacola. The event is open to any U.S. resident who is 65 years of age or older. You do not have to live in Santa Rosa County to get the vaccines. Ascension will have 1,000 vaccines available at the Milton Community Center and 1,000 vaccines at Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
Recently: Escambia and Santa Rosa set a new COVID-19 record in the last week of 2020
How to register: Mass COVID-19 vaccinations begin this week in Pensacola, Milton
Only those who are pre-registered can get the vaccine on Wednesday.
To register for Holy Heart vaccinations, residents can sign up at Ascension’s website, getsacredheartcare.com, as soon as it becomes available. The site was unavailable for registration as of Monday afternoon, and hospital staff did not know when it would be available.
Appointments can be made by calling the Santa Rosa County Information Line at 850-983-INFO, but due to an overwhelming volume of calls, staff have asked residents to wait until the Ascension website is available to register online.
In addition, the Santa Rosa County Department of Health has 2,800 vaccines available and will begin vaccinating people at the Milton Community Center from Tuesday through Friday. The vaccination event is also available to residents 65 and older, not just Santa Rosa County residents. Call 850-983-INFO to register for those vaccines.
The mass vaccinations are part of a deployment of the whole vaccine for those most vulnerable to COVID-19 complications, people 65 years and older. The governor signed an executive order on Dec. 23 in which people in that age group preferred the vaccine over younger people who could be essential workers.
The first wave of people get the vaccine: 500 Escambia residents receive COVID vaccine on Sunday, part of state pilot to test deployment
Since the vaccines are funded with federal dollars, any U.S. citizen can distribute the vaccines Wednesday in Santa Rosa County or at the Ascension site.
“We do not limit it to Santa Rosa County residents. It is a federal vaccine given to us, and although we want to take care of our residents, we do not limit it to that, ‘said Brad Baker, director of public safety in Santa Rosa County. “But we limit it to registration.”
Within minutes of the county opening its inauguration on Monday afternoon, the phones were already overwhelmed by people calling and trying to get appointments. Santa Rosa County had six people on hand to answer phones, but spokeswoman Brandi Bates said they were bringing in even more people Monday afternoon.
Baker encouraged patience as the effects of the vaccine began.
“It was a challenging time, so we ask you to be patient,” Baker said. “We know there will be some obstacles to get through because we are learning to do massive vaccinations in the country. We have done exercises before, and they were very successful, but have 1,000 (vaccinations) within.” “It’s a challenge. It’s definitely going to be a challenge. We just ask you to be patient.”
At the vaccination site of the Department of Health at the Milton Community Center, the province will administer the vaccines in five minutes, but this will increase the frequency as the days go by and the logistics are worked out.
Baker said the faster they can get shots in people’s arms, the faster they can order more vaccines.
“The faster we can get them in our arms, the better it is to reverse this COVID pandemic,” Baker said. ‘I think that’s our focus now, how fast we can get it. It obviously depends on how fast we can get into it. … Our goal is to get them as fast as possible. We are going to register people for the next two weeks, but if we run out and not If you enter the next consignment, we will have to postpone it, but we will notify you and you will be the first to be scheduled when they enter. . “
The move to vaccination in Santa Rosa County comes as the province continues to see record-high COVID-19 positivity rates, more than double the state’s positive rates.
Sandra Park-O’Hara, the administrator of the health department in Santa Rosa County, encouraged people to continue with social distance and wearing machines and to get the chance as soon as possible.
“This morning we had 11,772 cases (in Santa Rosa County.) And I want to mention that 1,200 of the cases came in within the past week,” Park-O’Hara said Monday. ‘Our positivity rate in our country today is 29.2%. This is important. The state rate is 12.52% this morning, so you can see that we are trending far above the state. ‘
Pensacola vaccinated its first group of people in the general population at the Brownsville Community Center on Sunday morning, as part of a nationwide pilot program to test the logistics of vaccine distribution among the public.
The Escambia County Department of Health began reporting last week for people interested in getting the vaccine, but the department did not release plans on when or how it will actually vaccinate people.
Annie Blanks can be reached at [email protected] or 850-435-8632.
Previously: Residents receive COVID vaccine on Sunday, part of the state pilot to test its implementation
And: How Santa Rosa, Escambia provinces spent $ 89 million on CARES money this year
More: COVID-19 cases rise 26.4% in Florida