NASSAU COUNTY, Fla. — UPDATE 1/19/2021: The Florida Department of Health in Nassau County has been notified by the state it will receive 975 vaccine doses this week.
Nassau County Director of Emergency Management Greg Foster says more than 8800 residents have registered their names on a waitlist on the Eventbrite website.
Foster says Eventbrite will begin notifying residents today by email if their name has been randomly selected from the waitlist to receive a vaccine dose from this allotment.
The notification process will continue through tomorrow afternoon.
Original Story: Nassau County has administered 850 vaccines through the county’s health department since Jan. 4.
Starting Friday, Emergency Management is nixing the appointment system and is instead allowing people to register for a wait list.
Anyone 65 years and older is allowed to register for the waitlist on the county’s website here: https://www.onenassau.com/covid-19-vaccine-appointments/.
Emergency Management Director Greg Foster said once the county gets another shipment of vaccines, a system will randomly select people off the waitlist to sign up for an appointment.
“We had a lot of frustration in the community about having to go on every morning,” Foster said. “For this population to every day have to wait for appointments to open, and then get online. It was just too cumbersome.”
On Jan. 4, 100 appointments were booked in three minutes. On Jan. 5, 400 appointments were booked in a minute. Then on Jan. 6, 350 appointments were quickly booked.
“15,000 people hit my website in thirty seconds. It didn’t crash the website, but it slowed it down,” Foster said.
Anyone 65 years and older can register for the waitlist or call 904-548-0900.
A phone bank will be open Friday and Saturday until 5 p.m. and resume next Tuesday. Foster said so far the county has only been allotted 850 doses, but expects to get more sometime early next week. That’s a small percentage compared to the 24,000 residents 65 years and older who live in Nassau County.
“I would love to vaccinate my entire county in a day. That would be my ultimate wish. But understand why it’s going the way it is. I anticipate those numbers going significantly up in the near future,” Foster said. “Right now, we’re dealing with the vaccine that we’re getting. We’re trying to do it in the most effective, efficient, and fair way as possible.”
Once people register for the waitlist, the county will email and call to set up an appointment when more vaccines become available.
The Nassau County Emergency Operations Centers spokesperson sent Action News Jax the following statement:
“Since 9am this morning, Nassau County EM has signed up 6872 as of 5pm on the EM’s waitlist. In addition, more than 10k have signed up on Nixle Alert System to be notified when Nassau County has received a new allotment of vaccine.”
Cox Media Group
