The COVID-19 Vaccine in Brevard
Vaccine administration has begun in Brevard. When will you be able to get yours?
BE ADVISED THIS STORY IS OUTDATED
Coronavirus vaccines began rolling out to the citizens of Brevard in January of 2021. At first, only Brevard citizens age 65 and up, healthcare workers, and other essential workers age 50 and up were eligible to make an appointment and get the COVID-19 vaccine. But as of April 5th, all Florida citizens age 16 and up were eligible to get the vaccine. Currently, over 10 million vaccine doses have been administered to Florida citizens. Brevard makes up almost 200,000 of those individuals.
In early February, Brevard Public Schools announced that it would be partnering with the FDOH to prioritize giving vaccines to all teachers and substitutes over the age of 65. That age qualification has since been removed after federal guidelines allowed all daycare workers and teachers to get vaccinated. Now, every teacher across the country can get a vaccine if supply is available. There is no set plan at the moment to vaccinate Brevard students under age 16. But once vaccines have all been approved for children, administrating the doses will be a top priority. Earlier in February, one official clarified the plans.
"Because the current priority is vaccinating those 65 and older, as well as healthcare providers having direct contact with patients, there is no current date on when children in public schools will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine," said Jeffrey Stuckey, a Communications representative from HealthFirst.
To make an appointment to get vaccinated, you can go to Publix, HealthFirst, CVS, Walmart, Winn-Dixie, the FDOH, and various other convention centers across the state. In early February, Governor Ron DeSantis implemented a program in which Publixes all across Florida would help administer vaccines. The vaccines were to be available through over 22 Publixes in Brevard, but the availability of vaccines at each individual store changed frequently. Until vaccines become more readily available, the only way to get vaccinated is to make an appointment at one of these healthcare providers. But these appointments were in high demand- on January 25th, a set of 1,500 vaccine appointments were made available to the public but were gone after only 11 minutes.
In early March, vaccine appointments became slightly more available. Now that there are so many different places to get vaccinated, the overload and supply has become far easier to handle. But because vaccines are now available to almost everyone, it has become increasingly difficult to get vaccinated. There’s several million people all trying to get one of the 40,000 vaccines available as of April 5th.
The specifics of when children can get vaccinated and when more doses will be available again are still undetermined, but to stay updated you can text BrevardEOC to 888777 or check the Health First and Publix web pages as frequently as possible.
"Because we do not know the date when we will receive another shipment of COVID-19 vaccinations, or the quantity, we are only able to offer updates and scheduling on that website," said Stuckey.
Coronavirus cases in Brevard have been slowly increasing since mid-September. There were 28,147 total COVID-19 cases in Brevard as of January 27th, with 620 COVID-19 related deaths. As of April 6th, there were 37,852 cases in Brevard with 818 deaths from COVID-19. The increase in cases has begun to diminish as more and more vaccines are administered. These vaccines are vital for Brevard because the elderly make up almost one fourth of the population, which means higher death rates even with fewer cases. Especially with the alarming amount of COVID-19 variants being found in Florida, these vaccines are extremely valuable.
With that being said, Brevard County doesn't seem to be spreading the virus as much as other counties. The county is reporting fewer cases than Volusia, Polk, and Pasco County, all of which have a similar total population. With vaccines being administered more frequently, Brevard’s outlook for COVID-19 appears to be getting better.
The administration of vaccines in Brevard is conducted using a phased approach to deliver vaccines to those most in need. Brevard is currently in Phase 2 of vaccinating the public. First responders, teachers, and day care workers have all gotten the opportunity to be vaccinated. There are different possible phases and recommendations that HealthFirst is using to administer vaccines, but the company is working tirelessly to supply vaccines to those who need them.
"We have a COVID-19 task force that is diligently preparing to administer vaccines quickly upon the receipt of shipments," said Stuckey.
Brevard is currently trying to follow the CDC guidelines around vaccinating the public. The CDC recommends three groups who should be vaccinated under Phase 1, the phase Brevard just left: healthcare personnel and long-term care facility residents, then frontline essential workers and people age 75 years and older, and then other essential workers an people ages 65 through 74 years and people ages 16 through 64 years with underlying medical conditions.
The first sets of vaccines for adults have been completed, so make sure to check the above websites to find out when students may be able to get vaccinated.
This is Alicia's second year at Edgewood and first year on the Edge staff. She loves writing, debating, and bettering Brevard. She hopes to educate and entertain the members of her community.