seniors seeking covid vac in florida (off topic to mc)

[brandy]

I live in Alachua County,FL and my county seems to be doing better than most in distributing Covid vaccinations.
My county has 7500 seniors 65 and older that have registered with the Alachua County Health Dept. The Health Dept contacts those who have registered and assigns a drive by vac location, day and time. The Health Dept is working through the list.

I have know of three seniors (Alachua County residents) who have health situations who called neighboring county Health Depts to get vaccinations scheduled sooner and not have to wait for Alachua County to call them.

Gilchrist County and Dixie County both appear to have vaccine surplus. I know three seniors who live in Alachua County but got their vaccines in either Gilchrist or Dixie Counties. In both cases the senior had to work the phone
to the health department for about 6 hours/approx 35 calls until they got a live person who scheduled a vaccine about 2 weeks out.

If you are a senior resident and live on a heavily populated coast and are having problems getting a vaccine I'd call
the rural county health departments in the rural middle of the state.

I'd try the health departments of the counties in the rural middle of the state close to where you live first but next I'd try Dixie and Gilchrist (both taking residents from other counties within about 2 week time schedule) and
I think Lafayette, Taylor, Union, Hamilton, Baker, Columbia, Madison, and Suwannee, and Levy counties are also
worth phone calls to the Health Dept.

Again, you may have to work the phones for a day to make contact to the health departments in the rural counties.

My understanding is that there are distribution problems in the dense populated coastal areas and also in the Orlando area but there is a surplus in the rural counties of Florida.