In Lee County, COVID Vaccination Sites See Large Turnout

COVID-19 vaccines in Lee County were distributed for the second day Tuesday to frontline healthcare workers and to those 65 years of age and older.

During a press conference, Lee County Board of County Commissioners chairman Kevin Ruane said vaccination sites reached capacity early in the day.

"Three vaccine sites had fully reached capacity by 7 am today," Ruane said. "Because capacity was reached and the number of the vaccinations allocated to the sites were assigned, the sites were not accepting anyone else this afternoon."

Due to the large turnout for the vaccine, Florida Department of Health in Lee CountyAdministrator Angela Smith said her department is working with healthcare companies to vaccinate frontline workers separately.

"We’re actually doing some ancillary sites for our healthcare workers because we do recognize as they're working, they can’t run over during their lunch hour if we’re already at capacity," Smith said.

Ruane said the county is working with its IT department to find a way to streamline vaccine distribution.

"We’ll have greeters, we’ll have portals, we’ll have social distancing markers, line control measures, continued use of numbering stations," Ruane said. "Lee county IT is evaluating tech options for the potential reservation system."

Ruane said the Florida Department of Health will release a schedule for additional vaccine sites in the county by the end of the week.