PALM HARBOR, Fla. — “We started vaccinating here on March 1,” said Dr. Nicolette Mathey, Pharmacist and Owner of Palm Harbor Pharmacy.
Palm Harbor Pharmacy received the Pfizer vaccine from the state and for months it was really busy with long waiting lists filled with thousands of people.
“We’ve given about 5,000 shots to date,” said Mathey.
They were doing about 100 vaccinates a day but over the past month, that’s dropped to about 10. However, Mathey says it’s starting to pick up again.
“We’re seeing more of the younger population come in now to get vaccinated, said Mathey.
She says a lot of younger people have waited this whole time to see what would happen but now that the highly contagious delta variant is spreading across the state, things are changing.
"Now that we can see the trend that COVID is not going to plain go away with that first wave of vaccinations, with a lot of the older folks getting vaccinated, more and more people are coming in to get vaccinated. Plus if you had COVID your antibodies to it are only said to last at least three months so after that you could be susceptible,” said Mathey.
She expects things to get even busier soon, and they’re prepared for an increased demand for vaccinations as COVID-19 cases surge.
In the meantime, they're still working to get as many people as possible vaccinated in the community.
“Now we can take walk-ins or I can test someone out in the parking lot for COVID and if they don’t have COVID I can have the conversation with them and if they’re comfortable they can come inside and get vaccinated right then,” said Mathey.