Dear Patient:
I hope your year is off to a good start and you are well.
Vaccines: Vaccination started on 12/14/2020 with the federal government shipping out the vaccine to the states. In Florida, the Governor has authority under the state of emergency to decide who gets the vaccine and when. This is the situation in our area:
The Florida Department of Health in Collier County (DOH-Collier) has received the COVID-19 vaccine. Note: There will be a limited amount of vaccine distributed per day per site. Collier County will continue to receive the vaccine in the following weeks.
Appointments in Collier County for the COVID-19 vaccine will be made via Eventbrite (not first come, first served as previously reported). Registration links
Appointments for the vaccine in Lee County may be made by calling 1-833-618-2001.
We have applied for vaccine at the office but do not know when we will receive it. Both vaccines that have been approved are safe and efficacious, so, I recommend that you get the first that is available to you. Please also note that due to overwhelming demand both the Collier and Lee registration platforms will have challenges. I recommend that you keep trying daily to register. As more vaccine comes available, things should improve.
https://floridahealthcovid19.gov/covid-19-vaccines-in-florida/.
There are currently 73 persons hospitalized at NCH and 1740 persons have been discharged home since the beginning of the pandemic. NCH has completed 52,000 tests.
Testing sites in Collier County include: Advanced Medical Center (566-7676), Vava Clinic (331-8520), the health department (252-8200), EPN urgent care (775-2300), CVS (261-6444 and 775-5450), the VA Clinic (659-9188) and Pebblebrook Pharmacy 353-0800.
Below is the link to the updated NCH COVID information page:
https://nchmd.org/news-and-events/newsroom/coronavirus-covid19
Sincerely,
Paul Jones MD