Vaccine distribution enters new phase

Nearly half of the county’s population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, a figure the Florida Department of Health in Sarasota County is both happy with and intent on improving.

During the last week, the health department has begun a new phase of vaccine distribution. On Friday and Saturday, the department hosted its first walk-up clinics at Sarasota Square Mall, offering a first dose of vaccine to anyone older than 18. On Monday, the department shut down the vaccine registration system that residents have used to make appointments for shots since January.

The changes are reflective of a changing dynamic for doling out vaccines in Sarasota. Those who were eager to get the vaccine have largely been able to do so. This is particularly true among the older residents who were at the front of the line for vaccine eligibility: For individuals who are 65 or older, more than 82% have at least one dose of the vaccine, according to an April 7 presentation from Chuck Henry, the Sarasota County administrator for the Florida Department of Health. For individuals older than 50, 68% have been vaccinated — the second highest total in the state, he said.

“The Sarasota County vaccine registry has been extremely successful in terms of getting people registered and getting shots to them,“ Henry said.

As supply begins to exceed demand, health officials must deal with a new set of challenges. The health department decided to sunset the registration system once the turnaround time between an individual signing up and an appointment becoming available was practically eliminated. Now, the department is attempting to serve individuals who weren’t rushing to make an appointment as soon as they became eligible.

Part of that effort is switching to walk-up clinics at the mall where individuals can show up without an appointment. The health department also intends to hold pop-up events throughout the county, using vaccination data to target geographic areas where the numbers are lagging, spokesman Steve Huard said. The department intends to team up with local-level officials and community groups as it works to devise strategies for reaching groups that haven’t yet received a vaccine.

At the April 7 County Commission meeting, Henry acknowledged it is harder to get individuals under 50 to get vaccinated than it was for older, more vulnerable members of the population. Members of the County Commission said they believed the health department needed to make vaccination extremely convenient to get younger people to participate.

“They’re not as fearful,“ Commissioner Nancy Detert said. “They’re not as well-organized. They don’t plan ahead for things like shots.”

Detert suggested prioritizing the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine for that population. This week, the state temporarily paused use of that vaccine out of an abundance of caution as federal health officials research rare examples of blood clotting in six individuals among about 7 million who have received it. Commissioner Christian Ziegler said he believed the health department should work to establish longer-term vaccination sites throughout the county, rather than relying solely on pop-up events.

“The issue with the pop-ups with people of my generation is by the time we’ve found out about it, the circus has already left town, basically,” Ziegler said.

To reach the 75% to 80% immunity threshold experts believe may be necessary to achieve herd immunity, Henry said the county needed to vaccinate at least 100,000 additional people. In the first two days of walk-up clinics at Sarasota Square Mall, Huard said about 500 individuals received a vaccine — less than what the department hoped.

“We would like to see more people walking in for vaccinations,” Huard said.

Even as vaccination figures rise, Huard said COVID-19 continues to pose a health threat to Sarasota, encouraging residents to continue to follow guidelines on social distancing and masking. For those who are ambivalent about the prospect of getting a vaccine, Huard said widespread public participation in the vaccination campaign represents a path back to normalcy.

“It’s really in the best interest of the community,” Huard said. “The sooner we all get vaccinated, the sooner we will not all be in masks, we won’t be talking about social distancing.”