What’s the plan in the Florida Keys for the COVID vaccine? You’ll need to wait for it
Blaming the state for an “unanticipated lag” in delivering additional COVID-19 vaccines to the Keys, the Florida Department of Health in Monroe County has announced a delay in launching a website and call center for vaccine registration.
“They haven’t delivered the vaccine and they haven’t delivered the website either,” said Bob Eadie, the administrator of the state health department in Monroe on Friday. “All of this is being driven by the state department of emergency management. The vaccine allocation comes from the state.”
Eadie said the state has changed its allocation method so that every county will receive a supply of vaccines based on its population of people 65 and over.
The state “plans on distributing doses to counties next week along with reports of vaccine allocations by county,” the agency said on its website.
The health department in Monroe had told people to look for ways to register, both online and by phone, by this week.
“For the safety of our staff and clients, please do not come to any of the health department locations without an appointment for services, including COVID-19 vaccines,” the agency said. “We continue to ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation.”
In the Keys, which has a population of about 74,000, the plan for distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine depends on how many doses come down from the state.
“We can scale up what we’re doing,” Eadie said. “We don’t have the vaccine to do it and we don’t control getting the vaccine.”
Where will vaccines be distributed?
The plan is to use health department locations as vaccination sites. They are the Gato Building in Key West, the Ruth Ivins Center in Marathon and the Roth Building in Tavernier.
More vaccines would mean more sites, Eadie said.
“If we can get what would be a sufficient and steady supply of the vaccine we would be setting up vaccination centers, drive-through centers or whatever makes sense,” Eadie said.
According to the state’s Thursday COVID-19 vaccine report, 2,443 people in the Keys have been vaccinated and 176 people have received the series of two doses.
As of Thursday, Monroe has a known total of 4,819 cases of the novel coronavirus and 37 deaths.
So far, the health department in Monroe has received 1,300 doses, which were reserved for healthcare workers and people 65 and older with special needs. The total vaccination numbers include people in long-term facilities and nursing homes who have been vaccinated through CVS and Walgreens, Eadie said.
People must have appointments to receive the vaccine.
“Without the vaccine, that’s all moot until we know how much vaccine we’ve got and when we’re going to be getting it,” Eadie said.
Lower Keys Medical Center CEO David Clay said this week the hospital on Stock Island has vaccinated 300 employees and medical staff.
“We have requested an additional 100 doses for staff and physicians,” Clay said. “We do not have any public vaccination clinics currently scheduled. The Monroe County Department of Health is coordinating the community vaccinations.”
Medical staff at the other two hospitals in the Keys — both run by Baptist Health — have had to travel to the Baptist’s main hospital in Kendall to receive the jabs, said spokeswoman Georgi Morales Pipkin. That vaccination spot, located next to the hospital campus at the Hilton Miami Dadeland, opened last month, Pipkin said.
The percentage of vaccinated staff at the hospitals — Mariners Hospital in Tavernier in the Upper Keys and Fishermen’s Community Hospital in the Middle Keys city of Marathon — was not immediately available from Baptist.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 1:53 PM.
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