ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County is allowing Florida residents to pre-register for coronavirus vaccine appointments online for quicker signups when shots are available.
The appointment portal for the Orange County Convention Center site opened Friday (Jan. 29) at 8 a.m. with a number of new appointments for the shots, but it was closed less than an hour later.
Recommended Videos
[TRENDING: Deputies: Girl abused by children’s book author | Deputy investigated for slamming student | How to get vaccine in Fla.]
People must create a CDR Health account in order to get tested or schedule a vaccine appointment. Once a person is registered, they will still need to schedule their appointment, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said.
Meanwhile, personnel at four community centers around Orange County are standing by to help residents who don’t have a computer and/or smart device and may need help signing up for a shot.
Staff at Holden Heights, Pine Hills, East Orange and Taft community centers will be available Friday to help seniors register for the vaccine. Spanish-speaking personnel will also be on hand.
Dr. Raul Pino, health officer for Orange County-Florida Department of Health, said it’s hard to determine exactly how many appointments the county will offer per week based on vaccine availability but he estimated approximately 8,000 for the coming week.
“Each day we have different number of appointments so it could be that in a day we are adding to 200 to 300,” Pino said. “So that’s why I cannot tell you how many per day, but last time that we opened it, which was similar to the coming weeks, we added about 8,000 appointments in that week. So the number should be very close to a little bit over 8,000.”
The county is providing vaccine updates via text if people text OCFLCOVID to 888777.