ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Orange County leaders are trying to make the coronavirus vaccine more accessible to more people, and that involves more than just offering the shots in mass numbers at the area’s large distribution sites.

What You Need To Know

  •  FDOH in Orange County hosted a vaccination event at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville Friday

  • The 500 appointments for the event filled were fill ahead of time

  • For many of the folks in the area, accessibility was the key obstacle to getting the vaccine, be it internet access, or transportation or lack of appointments

On Friday, the Florida Department of Health in Orange County hosted a COVID-19 vaccine event at Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Eatonville, where the church and the county worked together to get vaccines to hundreds of people.

Pernell Charles tried to book a vaccine appointment at the Orange County Convention Center after the eligibility age dropped to 40. But after thousands of appointments booked up in minutes, he wasn’t able to get the vaccine there.

“Everything was gone by 9:13 (a.m.), so there was no way,” said Charles.

Luckily, he had another option: The one-day distribution of vaccine in Eatonville. It’s a community where Orange County administrators say people are not getting vaccinated as quickly as other areas.

For Charles, it was the lack of access to the vaccine — not an unwillingness to get it — that kept him from getting the shot.

“So I just felt it was important to just do what’s best, not just for my own health, but for people around me,” said Charles.

For Valerie Chambers, her obstacle was distance.

“I didn’t want to have to drive 15, 20 miles to go and get vaccinated,” she said.

But at the church it was much easier for her.

“I live exactly a minute and a half from the church – this is my home church,” said Chambers.

For some of the 500 people who got shots at the church on Friday, it may have been internet access or transportation that kept them from getting a shot elsewhere.

“So in order to get to that next threshold of activity where people want to get vaccinated, we’re going to have to go into the neighborhood and community to make certain that we are leveling the playing field,” said Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, who stopped by the vaccine event.

Charles says he’s glad he’s finally getting vaccinated, but said this wasn’t about him.

“No so much concerned about my own safety as much as I am for the safety of those around me,” he said.

One of the organizers of the vaccination event at the church reached out to people by phone and said all 500 appointments filled up within a few days, and there was even a wait list.