Vaccine demand leveling off in Seminole County, officials say

While vaccine demand for seniors remains high in much of the state, Seminole County is starting to see it level off.

The county has vaccinated 50% of its senior population so far. When Seminole’s vaccine portal opened up on Tuesday, it remained open for nearly 24 hours -- a first for the county.

"Normally, over the last few weeks, even to a month ago, appointments were being filled extremely fast; even to the point of the website crashing from time to time. It’s very interesting to see 24 hours went by and appointments were still available," said Emergency Management Director Alan Harris.

Harris said this indicates demand slowing down – either people have an appointment, already received their shot, or don’t plan on getting one at all. Harris hopes this opens up the possibility for other priority groups to get vaccinated.

"The more counties start opening appointments and they don’t get booked, the more counties will start saying it’s time to move to the next group. Leon County, Manatee County, there are other counties that are already starting to say this," Harris said.

During a press conference Thursday morning, Governor Ron Desantis still did not have a date in mind for when this will happen.

"As of right now, we still have more demand than supply on a weekly basis, so we’re going to stay the course with putting seniors first," he said to reporters.

Other counties like Orange and Brevard counties are still seeing high demand from seniors.

"Every time that we open the portal, it gets full in 45 minutes," said Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County Health officer for the Florida Department of Health.

Orange County has vaccinated nearly 45% of its seniors. Brevard County has vaccinated 40% of its seniors so far.

Tune in to FOX 35 Orlando for the latest Central Florida news.