Day one rolling out the COVID-19 vaccine in Broward County is less than smooth sailing

Davy, Florida. – Don’t bother calling the Florida Department of Health in Broward County to make an appointment if you qualify for the COVID-19 vaccine – a word from the Department of Health is that you should make the appointment online.

This is a difficult feat considering the website crashes more often than it was running. Several people said they have been trying for weeks to get an appointment.

[RELATED: Get the details on Broward County locations: Vista View Park, Davie; Tradewinds Park, Coconut Creek, and, on Tuesday, Markham Park, Sunrise. The website address: https://browardcovidvaccine.com/ NOTE: As of 8 p.m. Sunday, the website was still not working. “We sincerely apologize. This site has been taken down for maintenance in order to serve you better. Thank You.”]

On the first day of the vaccination launch for those 65 and over, things were nothing short of smooth sailing at Vista View Park, one of the two sites that opened on Sunday. The other was Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek.

Hundreds of people showed up at Vista View Park and got vaccinated, while others were turned down because they didn’t have an appointment, or were stuck in a website crashing tangle.

There was a short window on Sunday morning where the site was up, but it crashed soon after despite FDOH sending in a statement that the site was up and running.

At Vista View Park, a group of cars stretched all over the park and down a side street for most of the day. The COVID-19 vaccination site opened at 8 a.m. and was scheduled to remain open until 4 p.m. on Sunday.

Jonathan Tabachnikov, a health care worker, was accompanying his 74-year-old mother who had an appointment set online.

“The line was around the corner and it only took an hour to get to the entrance to tell us there was a computer glitch, but if we’re okay to stay, we welcome it and it will take a few more hours,” Tabachnikov said.

The two struggled to find a date for her until an online venue opened this morning.

Others who showed up today were also hoping for the best after a website crash to secure sites frequently, even while in the middle of their booking date.

Richard Moore waited in his car and was hoping that when he got to the front of the line, he would be able to get a vaccine.

“The site kept crashing, so we tried to come back, but it kept saying, ‘You can’t go back, you were already registered with an appointment. I hope their technology is about to happen and they have the ability to find my name there,” Morrie said.

Information from the Florida Department of Health states:

If you registered previously, you must have received a confirmation email, please check your spam or junk email folders. For all future appointments, a confirmation email will be sent within 48 hours of registration.

If you are trying to enroll and find that appointments are not available, please check back often as we are increasing the number of vaccination sites for seniors in Broward County in the coming weeks.

Vaccinations will be available at no cost, by appointment only. Appointments for vaccination sites can be scheduled from vehicle to vehicle in https://browardcovidvaccine.com. Appointments cannot be made by phone at this time.

Individuals who receive a first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will automatically be scheduled for a second dose after 21 days.

Overall, rolling out the vaccine here and across the state has been challenging. The department head overseeing the program appears on the local Sunday 10 news program, “This Week in South Florida” and explains the difficulties.

“It’s tough to do long-term planning when you only get a 7-day look when the vaccine comes,” said Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Department of Emergency Management. “There is a lot of hesitation with the service providers in the second shot, again, because we are not taking a close look at when that second shot is approaching, even though the first batch of the second shot has arrived.”

Moskowitz said his administration is monitoring the deployment of the vaccine and all the problems and will assess the needs as the week goes by so that things go smoothly for the people who got the vaccine today, they got an appointment to come back in the second shot since this is the two-shot Pfizer vaccine that was distributed.

Coronavirus test site at The Holiday Park Hotel in Broward County is in the midst of a transformation To the site where the vaccine was given.

According to Fort Lauderdale, it is working with the neighboring towns of Oakland Park, Pompano Beach and Wilton Manors to create a coronavirus vaccination site.

Once up and running, it will be operated by the Florida Department of Health.

(Below is the fact sheet that is provided to recipients prior to receiving a Pfizer vaccination.)