Seminole County opens first vaccination site for elderly residents of Oviedo Mall

COUNTY SEMINOLE, Florida. – Seminole County was one of eight state counties selected for a pilot program that has workers distributing the Modern COVID-19 vaccine at Oviedo Mall this week.

Seminole County Emergency Manager Alan Harris said he had been talking about this program for about six months and said he was very frank with state leaders and told them he would like to be part of the pilot program.

Other Florida counties that are part of the program will also start administering injections very soon, said Harris, including neighboring Orange County.

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Filming was due to begin at 1 pm near the food court at Oviedo Mall, in front of the Loft Outlet.

“We are the first county in the state to do this and have this vaccination site open to the public,” said Seminole County President Lee Constantine. “It is a very exciting day for all of us, and especially, and I hope for our residents. It’s also a great day for the state of Florida because, again, starting now, One shot at a time, we’re going to save lives. “

He said he told Florida officials that the county was prepared and even put forward plans months ago to show what was done to make this happen.

Harris said the pilot program was to see how it would work for counties to establish distribution points.

He told News 6 Seminole County was selected and received 8,100 doses of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine. According to him, the municipality is prepared to receive vaccines from Pfzier and has freezing capacity.

“We will be doing up to 700 a day,” said Harris.

When the online portal was opened for people aged 65 and over to sign up for the vaccine, Harris said that all appointments were scheduled within hours.

“I expected there to be some concern about the vaccine because of all the conspiracy theories, but of course people have read, understood the facts, dismissed the stupid conspiracy theories and are interested in getting the vaccine and saving their own lives” said Harris.

Harris said it is vital for people to make an appointment. There is no walk in commitments.

“Because we have to defrost the doses,” he said. “So, we have to have the exact amount of doses each day.”

Once the vaccine is opened, it should be used within 6 hours, said Seminole County Health Officer Donna Walsh. If someone does not show up, he will call people on the waiting list, but Walsh expects people to keep their commitments.

“We have 30 days to use that refrigerated product after it has been defrosted and we are taking great care not to get into a bottle until we have 10 people. So we know that we can use that bottle in six hours, ”said Walsh.

Jeff Wray said he is one of those scheduled to receive the COVID-19 vaccine at Oviedo Mall.

“I hope that after going through this, others will see that it is okay to get the vaccine and protect them, not just themselves, but also their families and other people they come into contact with,” said Wray.

People can make an appointment by going to prepareseminole.org or by calling the citizens’ hotline 407-665-0000. People who qualify for the vaccine can also go directly to Eventbrite to make an appointment.

All bookings for this week were scheduled on Monday morning and the county was scheduled to open the site for further appointments at 11 am, however, the site was experiencing an outage on Monday morning.

“Currently, the Seminole County website is down and the phone lines are busy as residents over 65 are trying to register for a COVID-19 vaccine,” the county said in a tweet. “We appreciate your patience while we resolve these issues.”

Harris said the county is working to bring more servers online to meet demand.

Residents over 65 who make an appointment will be vaccinated in the food court in front of the Loft outlet, according to a press release. People should enter the mall between Paul Mitchell School and Oyishi Steakhouse, near the north entrance to the food court.

As of December 28, only the following groups are eligible for vaccines: residents aged 65 and over, residents and employees in long-term care facilities, EMT and paramedics, Florida Department of Health clinical staff providing services and Health professionals.

Residents can also text COVID19INFO to 888-777 to receive notifications when the vaccine is available to more groups.

County officials said a letter authorizing a doctor to receive the vaccine is no longer needed.

As of 8:15 pm on Monday, all commitments until 9 January have been fulfilled.

Seminole County, as well as other Central Florida county leaders, are working with the Florida Emergency Management Division to streamline the delivery of vaccines to more residents.

Walsh estimated that the vaccines would be available to a wider population in March or April, but if additional vaccines are approved by the Federal Drug Administration, this could speed up the schedule.

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