The director of emergency management in Florida said Thursday that a live appointment system for COVID vaccinations should be ready within a few weeks, indicating the chaos that is indicating the explosion of vaccines in Florida to the most vulnerable residents.
Director Jared Moskowitz described the plans for the online portal in an appearance before a legislative House committee holding hearings on the Tallahassee pandemic.
Governor Ron DeSantis has made it a priority to provide coronavirus vaccines to the elderly 65 years and older, which has created a huge demand. State health officials mostly left it to hospitals and health departments to administer the vaccines, and some seniors camped in long queues outside vaccination sites, only to be turned away when supplies ran out.
“I know it feels chaotic – 67 different provinces, systems and interpretations – but health care is provided at the local level,” Moskowitz told lawmakers. He said a registration system could help alleviate the provinces that currently exist because they provide vaccinations.
“We are working on a registration system that we will launch in the coming weeks to integrate site registration and to resolve issues that we have all read about,” he said.
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The design of a nationwide online portal is still being discussed and will be made available to provinces – which do not have to use the system – to help them coordinate vaccinations.
DeSantis has tried to increase the number of vaccination sites. The state receives $ 194 million from the federal government to distribute the vaccines.
As of Wednesday, about 774,000 Floridians have at least one shot of two vaccines approved by the federal government. More than 1.5 million people have tested positive for the virus in the state since the pandemic began; nearly 24,000 died.
With states put forward by the federal government, no one can be sure when enough vaccines are available to meet the demand.
State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith, a Democrat from the Orlando area, wants government officials to expand the vaccination sites and give seniors who may not have access to computers and online portals the opportunity to register for vaccinations via their phones or in person.
“It should not be an online system,” he said. He also called on government officials to do a better job of reaching out to communities, especially the colored ones, who are reluctant to rely on the vaccine.
Florida Surgeon Scott Rivkees told the Senate Health Policy Committee on Wednesday that Florida receives about one million doses a month, suggesting that it could take many months before the general population can be fully vaccinated.
Early data released in phase one and two trials of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine show that it appears to be safe and elicits an immune response.
Rivkees, like the governor, encouraged patience.
“This vaccine is our ray of hope,” Rivkees told the committee.
Other vaccines are expected to receive federal approval in the coming months, which is likely to boost the state’s ability to vaccinate Florida’s 21.5 million people.
The state’s largest Democrat, Senator Gary Farmer, acknowledged that the state is being held before the federal government, but criticized DeSantis for his “lack of leadership” in the pandemic. Farmer said the distribution of the vaccine was in disarray due to the lack of a coherent plan to get the shots into the arms of Floridians.
In some vaccination sites, the elderly had to be rejected because vaccines dried up. Dating sites have crashed due to high demand.
Carlos Suarez has the latest distribution of vaccines in South Florida, where residents are eager to find out how they can sign up to receive a dose.
“A lot of people are asking the question: when are we going to get vaccinated, and what does the timeline look like?” asks Senator Aaron Bean, a Republican.
“Is it fair to say that with the current offer, in terms of simplicity, it is a maximum of 22 months on the current offer?” asked the senator.
Rivkees said he hopes other vaccines will come on the market soon to possibly speed up the roster.
“We are very hopeful that other vaccines will follow soon,” Rivkees said.