FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Demand is proving to outweigh the available supply of the COVID-19 vaccine, and one South Florida hospital is stalling distributions to seniors.
Seniors are rushing to make appointments at inoculation sites after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis opened the vaccine program to civilians. Many may have to wait months, however, before they are able to receive the vaccine.
“We’ve gotten about 175,000 shots as of this morning,” DeSantis said. “We will get there, but it’s not going to happen overnight.”
At Broward Health, they are distributing the vaccine to members of the public who are 65 years and older.
Reservations to receive the vaccine have stopped until February after 5,000 reservations were made on Tuesday.
Officials said they received close to 100,000 phone calls from people trying to make appointments, but they do not have the resources to vaccinate them.
Don Kitten considers himself lucky after he got through Broward Health’s jammed phone lines to sign up for a COVID-19 vaccination, and he received his first dose on Wednesday.
“Got hung up on about 10 times and finally got through,” he said. “It’s been a long haul, so you see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Hospital administrators have not revealed when the line will reopen for others to make their appointments, but they said they are working to make signing up for a vaccine easier.
“We hear you, and we want to be able to give you the vaccine,” Broward Health Dr. Aldo Calvo said. “As I said yesterday, it’s going to have to be a little bit of patience. Unfortunately, we will not be able to provide any new appointments.”
Other hospitals and sites, such as Cleveland Clinic, are set to roll out vaccines as well. They said they are working with the state to receive more medication.
“The more shots we get into arms, the closer we come to ending this pandemic,” Cleveland Clinic Dr. Richard Rothman said.
DeSantis said there just aren’t enough vaccines at this time, and the state is working to get more.
“We don’t have enough vaccine currently on hand for all four million plus senior citizens in the state of Florida,” he said. “We will get there, but it’s not going to happen overnight, so please be patient. We want to get as many people access to this as soon as possible.”
The Department of Health for Broward County has a website for appointments for individuals to visit vaccination sites, but the website crashed several times throughout the day on Wednesday.
For more information on how to make an appointment for a vaccine (if you are in the age group!), click here.
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