County opens COVID-19 vaccine registration to all adults

Any adult in Sarasota County can now register for the county’s COVID-19 vaccine system, though only those who qualify under current state guidelines will receive appointments as they become available. 

The state on Monday expanded COVID-19 eligibility to all residents who are 60 years of age or older. Frontline healthcare workers, those living and working in assisted living facilities, law enforcement officers and firefighters over the age of 50, and school staff are also eligible.  

Floridians over the age of 18 can register for the new program and will receive registration confirmation. However, they won’t be assigned an account number until their age group or profession is approved by the state. 

As eligibility expands, residents will receive an account number in the order of registration. The Department of Health in Sarasota County will then schedule appointments in numerical order based on creation of timestamps and sequential priority groups. 

In the meantime, the DOH will continue to administer vaccine to individuals who remain over 65, which comprises 37% of Sarasota’s population. 

“We are committed to working through that population to ensure those who want to receive the vaccine are able to get it before we expand to other groups,” DOH Health Officer Chuck Henry said. 

Henry said more than 115,000 individuals who are healthcare workers or are age 65 and older have received the vaccine. There are about 65,000 in those groups to still be vaccinated. 

Individuals will no longer be able to create or change an account through the county’s old system that launched Jan. 20. This allows new residents to sign up without eligible individuals already in the system to lose their place in the queue. 

Ineligible individuals who created an account in the old system will need to sign up for the new system to be given a queue number. Their previous ineligible account number will not follow them to the new sign up. 

Additionally, residents will now be asked to create an account for each individual person to make the process more efficient. 

Individuals with questions or who need assistance with their accounts registration may call the vaccine registration call center at 861-8297 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday or 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. They also can visit the county's website for information.