Many COVID-19 vaccine sites across the state have already shut down, leaving people having to find alternate locations, like Publix or their doctor's office to get vaccinated.

Now that the CDC is recommending everyone to get at least one dose of the booster, the wait time to get those has increased.

The Citrus County Health Department said despite not having federal funding to keep the vaccine sites open, it’s important for them to continue to provide the vaccine for their residents.

Health Department Administrator Tito Rubio said, “The county health department and the department of health have always been doing vaccinations. That’s one of our core public health functions that we do, so we continue to operate and give vaccines. That includes COVID-19 vaccines.”

Allie Long is a registered nurse in the county. She has been doing this for a year and a half.

She said, “We have a big elderly population, so a lot of them are coming in for their second booster or their fourth shot.”

She graduated from the University of South Florida at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I got into nursing because I really like one-on-one interactions with people and it felt like I could make a strong difference in the lives of people,” she said.

We caught up with Jayne and Richard Stasik who visited the clinic on Friday. They said they moved to Citrus County almost 20 years ago.

“We moved here from Wisconsin,” Jayne said. "Richard is an avid golfer so it works out pretty well.”

Today they traded the golf course for their first booster shot.

“Any side effects with this one?” Jayne asked. 

“Did you have any side effects with these other ones?” Allie responded.

“A little bit of a headache but that was about it,” she said.

“Headache? OK. So that’s possible again,” Allie replied.  

The health department only offers the vaccine on Fridays as a free walk-in option. Allie is one of the handfuls of nurses there assisting

“We get really busy," she said. "As soon as we open, we usually have a couple of people already waiting to come in. It did dwindle before this booster was announced.”

These days she’s preparing at least 50 doses in the four-hour time frame they’re working on Fridays.

“Which has been a high number for us,” Ally said.

She said they will still be here serving the community for as long as they need to.

Citrus County is only seeing 50 cases per 100,000 people and its positivity rate is below five percent.