The registration portal, which joined several others already established across the state, opened at 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday and offered roughly 14,000 available appointments throughout the upcoming week. According to the Miami Herald, all vacant slots were full within minutes of the site becoming active.
The latest scheduling portal came along with an immunization initiative launched by Jackson Health System, a network of medical facilities based in Miami that provides opportunities for individuals over 65 to receive doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The Herald’s report, published early Tuesday afternoon, suggested that technical problems could have impeded access to Jackson Health’s enrollment portal, in addition to the high demand.
In a statement, Jackson Health said all available appointments were booked “in less than two hours.” Three hours after the portal’s launch, a message shared to the health care system’s website confirmed it could no longer schedule vaccination appointments because of a lack of additional space.
“We have booked more than 12,000 vaccine appointments,” the message read. “Currently all of our COVID-19 vaccination appointment slots have been filled, and we are not taking any new appointments at this time.”
Jackson Health encouraged anyone interested in receiving the vaccine to monitor its webpage for updates about future appointments. A spokesperson from the medical network told WTVJ reporter Carlos Suarez that up to 80,000 people attempted to register for appointments on Tuesday morning. The spokesperson reportedly said individuals will soon be able to register for additional appointments taking place throughout next week.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is prioritizing individuals older than 65 as the state proceeds through early stages of its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan. Other medical networks, such as the Memorial Healthcare System, began to vaccinate members of this demographic at the end of last month. Floridians who fall within the designated age bracket, and are consequently more susceptible to developing serious complications after contracting COVID-19, have made clear their interest in receiving vaccines.
Multiple local news outlets reported that older individuals formed enormous queues outside of medical facilities, and some slept in their cars overnight in hopes of securing immunizations earlier this week.
While DeSantis acknowledged that Florida does not have enough doses at present to vaccinate all residents older than 65, he said the state would continue to expand access as more vaccines become available. Florida is also working to vaccinate high-risk health care workers and residents of long-term-care facilities, in line with recommendations issued by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Newsweek reached out to the Jackson Health System for comment but did not receive a reply in time for publication.
