HILLSBOROUGH, Fla. — On Wednesday, Hillsborough County commissioners voted to have a written vaccination plan in place by their next meeting on January 21.
The vaccination plan will include hitting vaccination goals and having a communication plan to get information out to the public as quickly as possible.
Hillsborough County Commissioner Ken Hagan had some strong words while discussing his disappointment in the vaccine rollout.
"For me, the only way to adequately characterize the vaccine process is that of a clown show, if this were approved in the private sector someone's ass would be fired,” said Hagan.
This was in response to Hillsborough's vaccination appointment website crashing immediately. Then thousands could not get through to the call center which county leaders say was getting 2000 to 7000 calls a minute.
Hillsborough County leaders blame the vendor hired by the county to oversee the appointment process for the failure of COVID-19 vaccine appointment rollout. That vendor was fired.
Hillsborough County's Department of Health says their goal is to vaccinate 9000 people a week and increase that to 15,000 people a week by next month.
However, local officials say the problem with having a concrete plan is that the state controls the doses and they're changing things minute by minute. Hillsborough's DOH says they have no exact number of how many doses they will get each day.
This is unfolding as commissioners discuss concerns of the county's COVID-19 positivity rate being above 15 percent.
For now, county leaders are encouraging the public to continue wearing masks and social distance, as well as continue to be patient while the county works with a new vendor to set up COVID-19 vaccine appointments for seniors.
