The Sumter County Health Department received nearly 20,000 additional doses of COVID-19 last week and is distributing many of them to other local health providers to intensify the vaccination effort.
The health department is sharing many of these doses with UF-Health, The Villages Hospital, Florida Cancer Specialists and Langley Health Services.
“Other community partners are interested in supporting mass vaccination efforts,” said Dr. Sanford Zelnick, director of the Sumter County Department of Health.
The county also continues to provide vaccine doses to Global Medical Response, which vaccinated 1,000 people a day during the five days of the week they were operating at Lake-Sumter State College in Sumterville.
Global Medical Response will move on March 8 to the Catholic Church of St. Vincent de Paul in Wildwood, which is closer to population centers in The Villages and Wildwood, said Zelnick.
Last week, the Sumter County Health Department vaccinated 1,243 people at the Wildwood Community Center.
The good news is that the local spread of Coronavirus appears to be slowing.
Hospitalizations for COVID-19 infection decreased from 60-70 patients admitted at the height of the pandemic, to a daily hospital census of almost half that number, said Zelnick.
The Sumter County Health Department will use the EventBrite application for the next two weeks of vaccination appointments. A total of 1,800 first dose vaccination opportunities will be offered at various vaccination dates and times over the next two weeks.
“By offering more vaccines on more days, we hope there will be more time to allow people to register than was the case with previous EventBrite registrations in early January,” said Zelnick.
Registration will start at noon on Saturday, February 27 at this link: https://sumtercovid19vax.eventbrite.com
If you applied for vaccination through the state pre-registration system (by calling 866-201-7196 or online at https://myvaccine.fl.gov/), you will be contacted to reconfirm your interest in vaccination. If you reconfirm that you are still interested, the Sumter County Health Department will continue to book appointments from this pre-registration list.
Sumter County residents must plan to receive the second dose from the same supplier who provided the first dose, as the second dose was planned this way.