Jacksonville aims for 10,000 shots a day, but the challenges lie ahead

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The city of Jacksonville expects to vaccinate more than 10,000 people every day, but as of Tuesday it is a long way from that goal.

In an update on the distribution of vaccines to City Council members on Tuesday morning, the administration’s main office, Brian Hughes, said the goal is to increase vaccines as quickly as possible, but there are factors which will make it a challenge.

According to Hughes, on Monday, the first day of public vaccinations, 1,063 vaccines were given to seniors and health workers at the Prime Osborn Center.

“If you do the math, at 1,000 a day that won’t do it, so we have to get north of 10,000 a day to get that thing moving,” Hughes said. “And our goal is to do it as quickly as possible.”

In an effort to speed up vaccinations, the city said it will soon begin administering vaccines at test sites as early as this week.

“We’re working with the State Department of Emergency Management, which is preparing, probably this week (I don’t want to commit to it because it’s how it works), but this week they’ll probably turn the test site into the state regency, at least a portion of its capacity there will become a vaccination program that will add at least 1,000 per day, ”Hughes said.

The city also plans to get vaccinated at Mandarin Senior Center and Lane Wiley Senior Center at Westside. Hughes said COVID-19 testing will be reduced at these sites and will give way to vaccinations.

“There’s no better way out of this pandemic than this vaccine,” Hughes said. “And now it’s the priority for us to administer so many vaccines to so many people in the safest and fastest way possible.”

Part of the problem with the deployment of the new vaccination sites will be the cold storage of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

“This is probably one of the biggest impediments to distribution,” Hughes said. “I wish I could have two or three people sitting at the front tables. I wish I could throw them an Igloo cooler and tell them, ‘Hey, if someone comes up and wants to give it to them.’ this is how this vaccine works “.

Councilor Ron Salem, director of PharMerica-Jacksonville, a pharmacy that serves residences, said he believes it will be some time before citizens under the age of 65 receive the vaccine.

“We have 125,000 residents in Jacksonville who belong to this age group (over 65). So, even at four or 5,000 a day, it could be all of January before you start dealing with other people, ”Salem said.

Then there are the challenges of getting more doses of the vaccine and scheduling appointments.

Last week, phone lines crashed after thousands of people tried to call to make COVID-19 vaccination appointments. Then the Duval County Department of Health began accepting online registrations for appointments and filled spaces in just over an hour.

Heather Huffman, interim director of the Duval County Health Department, said Monday part of the problem with the schedule is that the vaccine was released faster than the state reservation system that is still under development. This has left each county figuring out an appointment plan for itself.

Hughes said Tuesday that the city is still trying to figure out if there is a way to create appointments that don’t involve a scheduling system.

“You may use certain days of the week. If your month of birth is determined, you are on a Monday. If your month of birth is this, then you are on a Tuesday or something with that effect that helps us manage the flow. , but that does not create another layer of technology that could interrupt the process “.

For now, the Florida Department of Health in Duval County said new appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine will be added through the online system every Thursday at 5 p.m.

The health department said the link will change weekly and will be posted on the alert page on the department’s website: duval.floridahealth.gov.

Anyone with questions is asked to call 904-253-1140, but telephone calls cannot be arranged.

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