Appointments will reopen at 3 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29 and will fill up quickly

Seniors 65+ who have registered on the CDR Maguire Patient Portal can book available appointments for COVID-19 vaccines beginning at 3 p.m. today.

The site is www.PatientPortalFL.com and demand for 10,000 appointments is expected to be heavy. Appointments will go very quickly, so registering ahead of time is the best option.

Today, the State of Florida released information about a registration system at www.myvaccine.fl.gov. This site is independent of today's signup for Pinellas appointments for vaccines.

Registering at that site DOES NOT REPLACE signing up at the Patient Portal. The My Vaccine site is independent of how Pinellas will provide vaccine appointments at 3 p.m. today.

If you also wish to sign up at the state's My Vaccine system, it's optional but it will not get you an appointment in Pinellas because the system is not yet in use in here.

To repeat, for one of 10,000 vaccine appointments that will go live in Pinellas at 3 p.m., USE THE CDR MAGUIRE PATIENT PORTAL AT WWW.PATIENTPORTALFL.COM.

For the latest information on vaccine appointments and updates, residents can check https://covid19.pinellascounty.org/vaccines or the Department of Health in Pinellas County Facebook, Twitter, and Nextdoor.

For information about DOH-Pinellas, go to www.PinellasHealth.com or follow on Twitter @HealthyPinellas.