- October 28, 2024
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Flagler County's has been integrated into the state of Florida's new COVID-19 vaccination appointment system, https://myvaccine.fl.gov.
"We are now basically — I say 'basically' because it's a sort of transition — out of the appointment business, which was one of the bigger burdens we've had recently here at the county level," Flagler County Emergency Management Director Jonathan Lord said in a presentation before the Flagler County Commission on Feb. 1.
Flagler was in the first quarter of counties migrated into the new system, Lord said. Others, including neighboring Volusia, are still working through the process.
So far, Flagler County has vaccinated about 11,000 people — about 7.9% of its population — while Florida has vaccinated about 2 million people, Lord said.
The limited availability of vaccines has angered some community members, but local staff don't determine how many vaccine doses the county gets from the state.
"We don't control the vaccines — that's controlled by the state," Lord said. "We're getting about 800 doses a week the last couple weeks."
The county could be vaccinating 1,000 people a day at the county fairgrounds if enough vaccines were available, Lord said.
Flagler County is in 19th place, out of the state's 67 counties, in terms of vaccinating its population, he added.
Case numbers in Flagler County remain high, although the percentage of positive tests may be starting to trend downward.
"Our percent of new positive cases in relation to total number of daily tests has kind of continued its post-holiday, unfortunate high," Lord said, "though we are starting to slowly subside — there's days where it spikes back up, but in general we are seeing a downward trend again. It's still not as low as it was before the holidays."
There have been 5,294 COVID-19 cases in Flagler County, and 65 deaths, Lord said.
