SUN CITY CENTER, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday said Florida is working on expanding a statewide online vaccine registration system. DeSantis said the state hopes to have the system set up for all state-run vaccination sites by the end of the week.
As of Wednesday, the only state-run site in Duval County, located at the Regency Square Mall, is only taking reservations over the phone. Right now, people over 65 and healthcare workers have to call in and manually enter information like date of birth and zip code and then wait for a call back with an appointment time.
More than 7,000 vaccines were administered in the first seven days at Jacksonville’s state vaccination clinic at Regency Mall.
DeSantis said the locations will still have phone reservations in the future to cater to those who may have trouble using a computer or don’t have access.
“We do have the phone reservations going on as well, which is very difficult when you have this many volumes of calls, but it does give people a different way to be able to do,” DeSantis said.
Early this month, Florida’s director of emergency management announced the creation of a statewide appointment system for COVID-19 vaccinations to bring order to the chaos marking Florida’s rollout of vaccines to its most vulnerable residents. The system also aimed to create uniformity among counties left to figure out vaccine registration on their own in the early days of the vaccination efforts.
To schedule an appointment for the COVID-19 vaccine at the Regency Mall, individuals can call (866) 200-3762. One thousand appointments will be scheduled each day. Notably, the Florida Association of Public Information Officers said Wednesday night that all available appointments have been booked through Feb. 1.
The Regency Square Mall site will operate from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week to vaccinate frontline health care workers and individuals 65 years of age and older.
DeSantis said Tuesday the state will be receiving a “modest increase” in first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
DeSantis said the state had received approximately 260,000 first doses per week for the past several weeks. He said next week, Florida plans to receive 307,000 first doses from the federal government.
It’s 47,000 more than the state has received in the past several weeks – as a part of President Joe Biden’s 100 million vaccines in 100 days initiative.
In a news conference to be held Thursday, city officials are expected to give an update on when more vaccine shipments are coming to Jacksonville.
