Rule change at MDC North vaccine site. At-risk with a doctor’s note won’t be turned away
In a sudden reversal, the Miami Dade College North vaccination site won’t be turning away at-risk people under 65 who don’t have the medical form required by the state, but do have a doctor’s note.
The doctors’ notes will now be accepted at the site, which opened Wednesday as the first location in South Florida established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
On Friday, FEMA altered the rules for what documentation people under 65 who are vulnerable needed to get the vaccine at MDC North, 11380 NW 27th Ave.
Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for FEMA, told the Miami Herald that doctors’ notes will now be accepted at the site in exchange for the state form.
At first, state policy allowed at-risk Florida residents to receive vaccinations at the federal site only if they brought a state medical-exemption form signed by a doctor. As a result, people under 65 were turned away because they didn’t have the form.
In fact, the MDC site on Wednesday met only 50 percent of its goal of vaccinating 3,000 people a day, according to state officials, much of that attributed to the state-form requirement.
Even though both a doctor’s note and the form will be accepted, Bahamonde said the site prefers the state form.
It is unclear if this rule change will apply to other Florida FEMA vaccination sites in Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, or FEMA’s satellite sites in Sweetwater and Florida City.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 6:03 PM.
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