Gov. Ron DeSantis has made frontline healthcare workers and  individuals 65 years of age and older priorities for the first rounds of the COVID vaccines.
Escambia County has been vaccinating first responders – Escambia County EMTs, paramedics, firefighters and City of Pensacola firefighters. According to PIO Laura Coale, the FDOH Escambia is responsible for handling our elderly population.
“Eric (Interim Public Safety Director Gilmore) has been communicating closely with the state to help implement their plan,” said Coale.”Currently, FDOH is providing vaccinations to long-term care facility residents and staff.”
Readers reported to Inweekly that they were having trouble getting FDOH Escambia to answer their calls. Those who did reach someone were able to schedule appointments for next week.
Later in the day, FDOH Escambia set up an online application form 65 years of age and older to request an appointment to receive the vaccine. Appointment Request form. They will not accept walk-ins or calls made to the FDOH-Escambia appointment line for the COVID-19 vaccine.
DeSantis’s office sent out this message yesterday around 5 p.m.:
“This week, Florida is preparing to receive 127,100 doses of the Moderna vaccine. 93,900 doses of the vaccine will be distributed to the county health departments that have not previously received doses of a COVID-19 vaccine. The remaining 33,200 doses of the Moderna vaccine will be sent to 54 hospitals that had not previously received the COVID-19 vaccine. With these allocations, all 67 Florida counties will have vaccine doses by the end of the week. Find the full list of hospitals that have received the vaccine HERE.”
The COVID testing has dropped dramatically. Only 249 test results were reported for Monday, Dec. 28, of which 51.81% were positive. The county had seven more deaths.
It’s unconscionable that this was set up mandating survey monkey, but what do we expect.
And now Representative Andrade has confirmed that he is quarantining with covid, and nobody seems sure how many other officials might have been exposed to the virus, who might be quarantining, and how many public events this might have impacted in the last couple of weeks. Radio silence on all the photos of events with people crowded together and many with no masks or masks off for photos.
This is why the public doesn’t have a firm understanding of how dangerous this virus is. I know so many intelligent and caring people who would *never* do something to hurt another person, but they just don’t understand the ramifications of how contagious and harmful this virus is, not only in the short term but over the long haul.
We are headed into the darkest hour of this virus–fast as the vaccine production may have been, even if the federal government had orchestrated a better roll-out, instead of the unsurprising disaster that it is, it still wouldn’t have been fast enough to nip the current wave in the bud.
Our local officials have got to pivot, fast. If they don’t get covid, they need get taught-up, pronto. And if they have been helping the public to not-get covid, they need to knock off that strategy and start focusing on education and leading by example. It’s going to be bad enough as it already is, without our local leadership getting it wrong.
I wonder how many people will get infected downtown tonight? What a way to roll in a New Year.
Just back from Walmart on Creighton Road. A PPD vehicle is parked at the entrance. I saw no sign of the PPD officer at any time during my one hour in the store. I counted 34 people not wearing masks, 33 shoppers and one vendor. Those were just the ones I saw as I made my trip around the store in a counter-clockwise rotation. Probably more.
I was at West Florida Hospital this morning. “Every” person was wearing a mask. One employee walked out of a staff door with her mask below her chin and an elderly patient immediately told her – “Please put on your mask.” – and she did. The employee apologized to the lady for forgetting to put on her mask when entering a patient area.