SARASOTA COUNTY (WSNN) – Appointments for the COVID-19 vaccine remain elusive here on the Suncoast.
COVID-19 vaccines are on many people’s minds. Some were lucky enough to get an appointment, others were not.
“This has become the hunger games of ‘Sarasota 2020,'” Sarasota Resident Dianne Bush said. “And it’s very frightening and it’s very scary. I’m actually nervous and scared because this is so important. It’s not like voting, it’s not like the mail, that we had to stay in line for; this is terribly important. If you want to stay alive and not get it, you’re going to stay in line for however long it takes.”
Sarasota DOH received 3500 doses, but they’re limiting the vaccine administration to about 400 a day.
“We were excited that Sarasota was getting vaccines, and we knew the first day was sold out and we’ve been trying to get them online, and weren’t able to get through, so we thought let’s just see if we can go down and get them,” Sarasota Resident Deb Antonucci said.
But the health department is vaccinating people by appointment only. And they’re not easy to get.
“It was like you had to be a vulture attacking your prey to get it,” Venice Resident, Joanne Sammon said. “I got it and then went tried to get one for my husband and they were already sold out.”
Sammon is one of the lucky ones.
“Totally awesome, just excited, like you won the lottery,” Sammon said.
When registration for appointments opened on Wednesday afternoon at 3:30 pm, they were sold out by 3:35 pm. Sarasota Resident, Claudia Barnett says the key to getting vaccinated is the text alerts.
“You need to text 888777 and put in SRQCOVID19,” Sarasota Resident Claudia Barnett said. “I did that, and I was just very lucky that at 3:30, I was testing it out.”
Those in priority groups such as health care workers and those age 65 and older are eligible to receive the vaccines.
The health department says there will be no vaccination distributions tomorrow or over the weekend. But, they will have an update on Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm.
RESOURCES
- DOH Vaccine webpage and appointments.
- Vaccine webpage and information.
- Text alert registration information.