UPDATE: At 9:16 am, St. Johns County reported all 400 vaccination appointments for Friday were taken and the appointment system is closing until the arrival of a new shipment of vaccines.
Late Wednesday afternoon, St. Johns County released the online appointment link for vaccination appointments on Friday, January 8.
Registration for appointments will open at 9 a.m. Thursday, January 7. The form will remain inactive until that time.
The link to register for a Friday, January 8, COVID-19 vaccination appointment is https://tinyurl.com/y52tcoaz beginning at 9am Thursday morning.
Only 400 doses are available, and once they have been reserved on Thursday, the registration system will shut down until the next allotment arrives.
If you are unable to make an appointment online, call the SJC COVID-19 Vaccination Hotline at 904-295-3711 after 9 a.m. Thursday.
Vaccinations, by appointment-only, will run from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm Friday at the Solomon Calhoun Community Center at 1300 Duval St, St. Augustine for the lucky few able to secure an online appointment on Thursday.
SJC Communications spokesperson, Lauren Ferrow, told the Spoonbill Courier that the county does not know when to expect its next shipment of vaccines, suggesting Friday’s vaccination effort could be a one-time effort and not resume for days.
“Hopefully soon”, she added.
A chaotic rollout last week of a much-anticipated vaccine distribution effort by the county office of the Florida Health Department collapsed, leading St. Johns County to take over the Covid-19 vaccination distribution program.
The new appointment system, outlined by County Administrator Hunter S. Calhoun at a news conference Saturday, foresaw a rolling online appointment-only scheduling system for vaccinations on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The county reserved Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays to distribute the upcoming required 2nd vaccine doses. Those 2nd doses are forecast to arrive in 30 days.
The link above will take applicants to Eventbright, a popular event scheduling website, which the county contracted to manage its vaccine reservation system.
For continuing updates on the COVID-19 vaccination program, visit www.sjcfl.us/coronavirusvaccinations or text SJCVACCINE to 888777.
I had 2 browsers open and simultaneously refreshing the screens as suggested on the website. Both showing open appointments until 9:31 when I gave up. We also called the phone number 23 times in the same 30 minutes. BRAVO to those who got through, let me know how you did it.
This is “Gummit” in the first degree