Health Department: No waiting list for COVID-19 vaccinations

Posted on February 17, 2021

The Taylor County health department officially has no waiting list for those 65 years of age or older wishing to receive the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine.

According to the latest information available, nearly half (47%) of Taylor County’s senior population has now received at least one dose of the vaccine — just six weeks after it first became available to the area.

According to Florida Department of Health- Taylor (DOH-Taylor) Operations Manager Martine Young, all 2,900 people on the list have now been cleared, and there are only 63 people scheduled to receive the vaccine this Friday, Feb. 19.

The extensive waiting list (which totaled 3,900 people one week ago) was whittled down to 2,900 last Thursday, as health department officials attempted to make contact with each person to schedule them to receive the vaccine.

“It was a case of people either did not answer and call back, they had already received the vaccine, they did not want to drive to Taylor County – as there were lots of people on the list from Tampa, Miami — or they decided they did not want the vaccine,” Young said.

“As an example, one of our employees took a list of roughly 120 people. Out of all those calls, two were scheduled,” Young explained.

Some of the same circumstances resulted in DOH-Taylor only being able to schedule 320 of their allotted 500 vaccines available to be given out during last Friday’s mass vaccination clinic at Forest Capital Hall.

When only 285 people showed up for their appointments last Friday, the 35 remaining vaccines were offered to DOH-Taylor staff and local clinic volunteers so they would not be wasted.

Meanwhile, the remaining 180 doses will be carried forward to this Friday’s clinic.

DOH-Taylor is also expecting a shipment of 500 more doses this week.

At this time, those who are 65 years or older may receive their first dose of the COVID vaccine as early as Friday, Feb. 19, by calling (850) 584-5087 (select option 2) to schedule an appointment.

With approximately 47% of those 65 or older having received the vaccine, Taylor County ranks 21st out of Florida’s 67 counties in this regard – well above the state average level of 39.78%.

“The magic number is 70%. We have vaccinated roughly 45% of our senior citizens, but we hope to hit 70%,” Young said.

Overall, slightly more than 12% of the county’s total population has received at least one dose, which ranks Taylor County 26th in the state and again above the state average level of 10.8%.

The TaCo Times arrived at these figures using the Florida Department of Health’s (DOH) COVID-19 vaccine data posted online through Sunday, Feb. 14, along with the most recent available U.S. Census estimates for both the county’s total population, as well as the percentage of those living here who are 65 or older.

Similar calculations were made for all of Florida’s other 66 counties, as well as the state as a whole, in order to derive the ranking.

As of Sunday, Feb. 14, a total of 2,597 people in Taylor County had received at least one dose of the vaccine, including 255 at the clinic held on Friday, Feb. 12, at Forest Capital Hall.

Through Sunday, 1,580 people had received the first dose, while 1,017 had received both.

Of the 2,597 people who have received the vaccine locally, 2,142 were age 65 or older, based on the DOH vaccine report issued Monday.

According to the U.S. Census, 21% of Taylor County’s population is age 65 or older, and based on the latest population estimate of 21,569 people, there are approximately 4,529 seniors living in Taylor County.

As such, the 2,142 seniors who have received at least one dose of the vaccine account for 47.29% of those 65 or older living in Taylor County.

As for those who have completed their two-dose series, 889 people age 65 or older had done so through Sunday, accounting for 19.6% of local seniors. Similarly, 4.7% of the county’s total population had received both doses.

Statewide, some 2,319,298 Floridians had received at least one dose of the vaccine through Sunday. The official statewide vaccine total of 2,387,350 as of Sunday included 68,052 out-of-state people who also received the vaccine in Florida. That number was removed from the TaCo Times’ calculations to not avoid skewing the results when calculating the percentage of Florida’s seniors who had received the vaccine.

However, the local calculations do include 1,128 people whose origins are listed as “unknown.”

Using U.S. Census population and senior citizen estimates, 39.78% of Florida’s seniors (or 1,785,696 people age 65 or older) had received at least one dose of the vaccine through Sunday.

Additionally, 10.8% of the state’s total population had received the vaccine.

Leon County had the highest percentage of its senior population (63.63%) who had received at least one dose, followed closely by Wakulla (63.44%) and St. Johns (63.37%) counties.

Meanwhile, Glades County ranked last, with just 22.95% of its senior population having received at least one dose, slightly worse than Highlands County at 23.51%.

Among Taylor County’s neighbors, Lafayette (57.86%), Madison (51.69%) and Jefferson (50.85%) counties had a higher percentage of their senior population receiving the vaccine, placing fourth, 10th and 11th in the state respectively. Meanwhile, Dixie County trailed Taylor with 36.04%, placing 43rd.

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