| Pensacola News Journal
Santa Rosa County and the Sacred Heart of Ascension Hospital in Pensacola announced their plans to distribute thousands of vaccines this week to people aged 65 and over.
Ascension Sacred Heart will have two “mass vaccination” events on Wednesday, one in Milton and one in Pensacola. The event is open to any US resident aged 65 or over. You don’t have to live in Santa Rosa to get vaccinated. Ascension will have 1,000 vaccines available at the Milton Community Center and 1,000 vaccines at the Olive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
Recently: Scotland and Santa Rosa set a new COVID-19 record in the last week of 2020
How to register: Mass vaccinations of COVID-19 launched this week in Pensacola, Milton
Only those with pre-registered appointments can get the vaccine Wednesday.
To register for Sacred Heart vaccination, residents can register on the Ascension website, getsacredheartcare.com, as soon as it is available. The site was not available for registration on Monday afternoon and hospital staff did not know when it would be available.
Appointments can be made by calling the Santa Rosa County Citizen Information Line at 850-983-INFO, but due to the high volume of calls, employees asked residents to wait for the Ascension website to go live 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 starting Tuesday and continuing through Friday. This vaccination event is also open to any US resident aged 65 and over, not just residents of Santa Rosa County. To register for these vaccines, call 850-983-INFO.
Mass vaccinations are part of a statewide vaccine launch to vaccinate those most vulnerable to the complications of COVID-19, people aged 65 and over. The governor signed an executive order on December 23 determining that people in this age group should have priority over the vaccine over younger people, who may be essential workers.
The first wave of people gets the vaccine: 500 Scottish residents receive COVID vaccine on Sunday, part of the state pilot for launch testing
Since the vaccines are funded with federal dollars, any US citizen can obtain the vaccines being distributed in Santa Rosa County or the Ascension site on Wednesday.
“We are not limiting residents of the municipality of Santa Rosa. This is a federal vaccine that was given (to us), so while we want to take care of our residents, we are not limited to that, ”said Brad Baker, director of public security for Santa Rosa County. “But we are limiting this to having to be registered.”
Within minutes of the county opening its information line at noon on Monday, the phones were already packed with people calling and trying to get appointments. Santa Rosa County had six people available to answer the phones, but spokeswoman Brandi Bates said they would bring in even more people on Monday afternoon.
Baker asked for patience while the vaccine launch begins.
“This has been a challenging time, so we ask that you be patient,” said Baker. “We know that there will be some obstacles to overcome, as we are learning how to do mass vaccinations in the county. We have done pod exercises before and they have been very successful, but dealing with 1,000 (vaccinations) in one day will definitely be a challenge. We just ask be patient. ”
At the vaccination post of the Health Secretariat of the Milton Community Center, the municipality will administer the vaccines in five-minute increments, but will increase the frequency as the days go by and with logistics.
Baker said that the faster they can inject into people’s arms, the faster they can order more vaccines.
“The quicker we can put them into arms, the better it will be to reverse this COVID pandemic,” said Baker. “I think this is our focus now, how quickly we can get them out. Obviously, it depends on how quickly we can put them on. … Our goal is to get them out as fast as we can. We will register people in the next two weeks, but if we run out and don’t get the next shipment, we will have to delay this, but we will notify you and you will be the first to be rescheduled when they arrive. “
The move to vaccinate in Santa Rosa County comes at a time when the county continues to record record positivity rates for COVID-19, more than double the state positivity rates.
Sandra Park-O’Hara, administrator of the Santa Rosa County Health Department, urged people to continue social distance and wear masks, and to get the injection as soon as possible.
“As of this morning, we had 11,772 cases (in Santa Rosa County). And I want to mention that 1,200 of those cases arrived in the past week, ”said Park-O’Hara on Monday. “Our rate of positivity today in our municipality is 29.2%. This is significant. The state rate this morning is 12.52%, so you can see that we are trending well above the state. “
Pensacola started vaccinating its first batch of people in the general population on Sunday morning at the Brownsville Community Center, part of a state pilot program to test the logistics of delivering the vaccine to the public.
The health department of Escambia County began applying last week for people interested in receiving the vaccine, but the department has not announced 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 for launch test
AND: Like Santa Rosa counties, Escambia spent its $ 89 million in CARES money this year
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