FORT MYERS, Florida – Online COVID vaccination registrations through Publix opened with 24,000 consultations across the state on Jan. 21.
All appointments available to Lee, Charlotte and Collier County have been scheduled for Friday, January 22. The nominations will be available again on Wednesday, January 27 at 6 am, Publix officials said.
Publix said it is actively engaging with customers in Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Customers can also call the Publix helpline at 1-800-242-1227.
Publix says that more than a quarter of a million people have visited its website to try to sign up. Since Governor DeSantis first announced that Publix would be offering the vaccines, thousands have tried to sign up with no luck.
Cecil Macrae was one of the lucky few to get a vaccine appointment at Publix.
“We signed up as needed, you have to be ready by 6 am and I just got lucky. I don’t know how … but I was lucky! ”
He was lucky. Thousands flooded the Publix online portal to find that it was either fully booked or that they were wrongly scheduled for consultations in the wrong county.
Publix said it simply does not have enough vaccines to keep up with demand, which is why some people trying to sign up may have been confused by the online portal.
“So, before a person could have a question about why they were receiving another county, and that is why vaccines were available,” said Maria Brous, Publix’s Director of Communications.
Publix said 45,000 appointments were opened online on January 22 at 6 am, but are now fully booked from Friday morning around 7am
Click here to make an appointment.
“We ask for patience, we continue to work with Governor DeSantis’ office and, as we receive more vaccines, we will be able to make more appointments and administer more vaccines,” said Brous.