COVID-19 vaccine appointments filled at Heart of Florida Health Center, but more soon to come

OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - With all COVID-19 vaccination appointments filled at Publix stores and the Marion County Health Department, both are suspending registration, that has many wondering where they can get a vaccine.

At the Heart of Florida Health Center all available appointments have been reserved but officials said more should be available soon.

Over the weekend, the Heart of Florida Health Center kicked off it’s initiative to start vaccinating the senior population.

On Saturday they vaccinated more than 1,100 people, including 400 walk-ins.

“We utilized our Pfizer vaccine that was issued to us from the Department of Health and we used about 100 vaccines from our Moderna supply that we receive before,” Heart of Florida Health Center CEO Jamie Ulmer said.

Starting Monday, appointments will be offered at all seven Heart of Florida locations in Marion County, with the goal being to vaccinate 500 people per day across all sites, but time slots filled up fast.

“We expect that once we’re able to receive more supplies we’ll open that appointment line right back up and we expect to be receiving another allocation any day that will allow us to continue to schedule patients,” Ulmer said.

And these health care professionals won’t stop. They’ll continue to meet the demand and said they’re ready to do so.

“We really are one of the only people in the town that has the resources to provide this vaccine. We have seven locations, we have staff that I can pull to the side and re-assign to do nothing but vaccines, so if you give me the vaccine, I’m pretty sure we can meet the demand,” Ulmer said.

And this week, they hope to tackle even more patients, especially those that have signed up to receive the vaccine with the Department of Health. Marion DOH officials said they do not have a set date for re-opening registration but will be getting about 2,500 additional vaccine this week.

They hope to vaccinate up to 200 of these patients starting on Wednesday.

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