ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – About 10,000 Orange County residents got a message Monday informing them they could get a visit from a State Emergency Response Team member to ask if they are interested in receiving the coronavirus vaccine at their home.
The new program, which starts this week, is a partnership between the county and the Florida Department of Emergency Management to get the vaccine out to underserved communities in Orange County.
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said a message was sent via the Everbridge system, similar to the reverse 911 system emergency management officials use letting them know that starting Tuesday about 150 canvassers, who include paramedics, will be in the Pine Hills and Lockhart areas ringing doorbells and checking to see if there are homebound individuals who would like a COVID-19 shot.
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If the homebound person agrees, a canvasser will register them and the Orange County Fire Rescue paramedics will then administer the shot to the individual. Paramedics will be administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine unless its not available, then they will have Pfizer or Moderna.
Demings wanted to make sure residents know who the canvassers are and what to expect.
“Canvassers will be wearing a shirt that is either bright blue, green or red,” Demings said. “This shirt will say, ‘State Emergency Response Team,’ or SERT. Each canvasser will have a picture identification, and you can see the lanyard around their neck with the photographs on it.”
Demings said the goal is to increase vaccine outreach to those who are homebound.
“Not everybody can get to the convention center, etc. Some people, perhaps will say that they don’t have transportation, and so we’re going to take it into their communities,” Demings said, adding that a similar approach has been tested in South Florida.
The State Emergency Response Team walked through the Sandy Lane neighborhood in Pine Hills on Tuesday, knocking on doors looking for people who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine but can’t get to a vaccination site.
Another stop they made was at an apartment complex off Alta Westgate Drive.
“One of the key factors is a low percentage of those vaccinated in those areas, so we wanted to focus in those areas. And this area was one of several identified and today’s the pilot project to that,” Orange County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Scott Egan said.
Egan said Tuesday’s mission is just a start to get even more people, who are eligible, the vaccine in Orange County.
“There are several identified areas in the county and depending on the results today, we will re-establish and re-meet to see what we do,” Egan explained.
Orange County Fire Rescue officials said at the end of the day Tuesday canvassers had knocked on 5,694 doors and given out 90 vaccinations.
The county is working with local elected officials to help identify persons and neighborhoods that will be contacted over the next few days. The underserved communities have been identified through the Florida Department of Health vaccine census tract data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Social Vulnerability Index, according to a news release.
“Those are scores that indicate where there are inequities of access to the vaccine,” Demings said. “So we’re trying to level that playing field here at the local level.”
The next canvasing group will target the Rosemont area in Orange County. Demings did not provide a timeline for when that would occur.
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