Levine Cava has a plan to lower COVID-19 age barriers. She urges DeSantis to approve it
Shortly after President Joe Biden directed states to make the COVID-19 vaccine available for all by May, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava drafted a plan to begin slowly moving toward the president’s goal.
On Thursday, Levine Cava tweeted she had sent a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis calling on him to create a schedule to expand eligibility to all adults. In her letter, Cava detailed an “aggressive plan” on lowering the age requirement.
Earlier this week, DeSantis announced he was lowering the minimum age from 65 to 60 starting Monday. Other eligible groups include nurses, and some police officers, teachers and firefighters 50 and over.
Levine Cava proposes that the state lower the minimum age by 10 years every two weeks. This means that residents 50 and over would be eligible the first week of April; 40 and over by mid-April; 30 and over the first week of May; and 20 and over by mid-May.
This closely falls in-line with Biden’s directive for all adults to be eligible by May 1.
“...I believe we must now set a more aggressive schedule to expand eligibility to all Florida residents,” Levine Cava wrote in her letter. “As supply issues continue to abate with increased vaccine production, cutting red tape surrounding vaccine eligibility is critical to protecting all our communities.”
She also urged the federal government to better coordinate with the state on clearing confusion surrounding the current eligibility criteria.
Levine Cava said that nearly 60% of all seniors 65 and older have already received at least one dose of the vaccine in Miami-Dade.
In the county, 239,790 people were given the first dose of Pfizer or Moderna, 221,498 completed the two-dose series and 7,794 received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the Florida Department of Health.
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 9:10 PM.
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