WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — COVID-19 vaccination appointments were again up for grabs Friday morning on the Publix website.
This time, all the slots were filled in about an hour.
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However, one Treasure Coast man raised some concerns about the system.
When Douglas Ashley of Martin County logged on to try and book a vaccine shot at Publix, he noticed something was different.
"[I was] very surprised. In fact, it made it more difficult to think what was going on," Ashley said.
What he and everyone else noticed was the number of doses for each county was replaced with a percentage number.
Ashley wondered why this happened since he also noticed the numbers of doses decreasing before the change.
"Palm Beach County last Friday (Feb.) 5 had 12,250 [doses], and on Monday they had 6,520, so it seemed like everything was half, half as much as they had before," Ashley said.
Publix said they continue to tweak their site.
"We continue to make enhancements to the system based on customer feedback," a Publix spokesperson said in a written statement.
The website has become more user friendly, improving its refreshing function, but there is still disappointment and frustration as Douglas experienced.
"Usually it took about two hours. This time around it only took about an hour to have things booked. Now, I'm not insinuating, but maybe that's just how many vaccines they had, and they were less than the times before," Douglas said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is getting more doses next week as the state starts to include Walmarts and Sam's Clubs.
Doses are now also going to the large vaccination operation at the South Florida Fairgrounds, which is starting at about 500 doses a day.
So far, Florida is reporting 3,188,306 vaccinations and 215,083 in Palm Beach County.
