Florida decided people 65 and older should get the coronavirus vaccine first.

MIAMI — Linda Kleindienst Bruns registered for a coronavirus vaccine in late December, on the first day the health department in Tallahassee, Fla., opened for applications for people her age.

They had scrambled into their car and driven 22 miles after receiving an automated text message saying vaccine doses were available.

Health department offices in Sarasota and several other counties, unequipped to schedule vaccine appointments on their own websites, resorted to using Eventbrite, a service usually associated with invitations to dinner parties and art exhibitions.

Palm Beach County was accepting vaccine requests only by email, said the county’s health administrator, Dr.

In the meantime, some wealthy people with connections to health care facilities have been able to get the vaccine more easily.

In a state with about 4.4 million people 65 and older, more than 402,000 doses had been administered as of Friday, according to federal data, the fourth-highest total in the nation.

But Florida has used only about 30 percent of the vaccine doses it has received, behind 29 other states.

So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on.

Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect.

But the clinical trials that delivered these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms.

In the meantime, even vaccinated people will need to think of themselves as possible spreaders.

Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems.

Aaron Kissler, the health administrator for Lake County, said officials wanted to get shots in arms quickly, even without a more organized appointment system available.

In Texas, about 527,000 residents had received at least the first vaccine dose as of Friday, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Bob Kelly, a 77-year-old retired veterinarian in Austin, said he made 20 or more phone calls searching for a vaccine before he finally connected one night at 3 a.m.

He and his wife drove 25 miles to the appointment, only to be told that supplies were so limited that the vaccine would only be given to people with aggravating health conditions.

But he has steadfastly defended the state’s decision to open the door to all seniors, saying he could not in good conscience see a 20-something who bags groceries getting vaccinated before a grandparent, not in a state where of the more than 22,000 people killed by the coronavirus, 83 percent have been 65 or older.

The plurality of vaccine doses have gone so far to people between the ages of 65 and 74, not to people 75 and older who are the most vulnerable to the virus.

Some of the lag in numbers may be a result of older people who are being extra cautious about getting a new vaccine developed in record time.

“Each of our 67 counties seems to be taking a slightly different pathway — and that’s remarkable, because we have a single department of health that is supposed to cover the entire state,” said Dr.

The Florida Department of Health is working on an online appointment system for all counties, but it is not yet ready, though the DeSantis administration says it has been preparing for the vaccine rollout since July.

DeSantis said his administration moved more aggressively than other states, getting teams of health workers and National Guard members to nursing homes the week before CVS and Walgreens pharmacies began vaccinating those residents.

“Everything was great,” Susan Hacker said after getting her shot on Thursday at the Century Village retirement community in Boca Raton.

In an interview on Tuesday, Hong Chae, the organization’s chief financial officer, said that a number of the nursing home’s board members and volunteers were offered the vaccine in case facility managers became incapacitated by the virus and board members needed “to come in and chip in,” he said.

Rico Toro, a onetime Miss Bolivia who now does charitable work for hospitals, said she had received the vaccine as a result of her donations and volunteer work for Baptist Hospital in Miami.

Rico Toro, who is 49 and in good health, said she initially hesitated.

Kleindienst Bruns in Tallahassee had gotten some good news: Her internist had received vaccine doses