Miami-Dade mayor: No more scramble for vaccine slots. Just join the waiting list

Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava pledged to close the income and racial gaps in the county’s COVID-19 vaccine plan, announcing plans for a booking process that lets seniors sign up in advance for appointments rather than scramble when slots are announced online.

“Your access to a computer, or the ZIP code where you live, should not determine how quickly you can get vaccinated,” Levine Cava said during her first State of the County address.

The Friday morning speech was delivered online from County Hall, a first for a report required by the Miami-Dade charter and typically held at an auditorium crowded with administrators, elected officials and lobbyists. She spoke after commission Chairman Jose “Pepe” Diaz, who said he was “proud to introduce our first madam mayor.”

Though Levine Cava convened an audience at the Arsht Center for her inaugural address in November, she chose a video address for the first State of the County event during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like her predecessor, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez, Levine Cava contracted COVID in November and has since recovered.

A moment for those who died of COVID-19

The 65-year-old grandmother and lawyer, who spent six years on the County Commission before winning the November mayoral election, praised Miami-Dade’s perseverance through a pandemic emergency first declared by Gimenez 324 days ago, on March 11.

She asked for a moment of silence for the nearly 5,000 people who died with confirmed COVID-19 cases in Miami-Dade, as well as those who died across the country.

“There is not a single person listening who hasn’t made sacrifices over the last year,” Levine Cava said, after removing a white mask to begin her address.

“My husband and I contracted the virus and recovered,” said Levine Cava, who believes she got COVID-19 after her physician husband, Dr. Robert Cava, treated a patient who tested positive for the virus. “We are so fortunate. Yet, we have not been able to hug or kiss our two small grandchildren for nearly a year, which has been enormously hard, a struggle I know is shared by so many others.“

Levine Cava, elected in November, centered her speech on a theme of making government more equitable and responsive to helping the environment and the economy.

“We can tackle this moment not just as a crisis, but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild,” she said in a speech that included lines in Spanish and Creole. “Building a more resilient Miami-Dade means not just weathering this crisis but rearranging the foundations so that we can rebuild better.”

She said the county will operate under a “no wrong door” approach to social services, so that anyone seeking help from Miami-Dade won’t be told to start over with a different agency. She repeated a campaign promise to launch an Office of Equity and Inclusion to focus on minority access to county contracting.

South Dade’s bus line going forward

Levine Cava also touted plans to start construction soon on a new rapid-transit bus line in South Miami-Dade, a formal rejection of calls by Commissioner Kionne McGhee to freeze that contract in order to pursue a rail extension on the same route. County leaders have previously rejected the rail option over its $1 billion price tag, and McGhee — elected in November to represent the southern District 9 — signaled this week that Levine Cava had rejected his request.

“Unfortunately, we have not seen any indication of the required local governmental support that would make rail possible,” McGhee said in a statement Wednesday. The “handwriting is on the wall that the desires and needs of South Dade will once again be disregarded.”

The main news out of Levine Cava’s speech involved the new system for vaccination appointments for the limited supply Florida sends for county-run sites at Tropical Park and Zoo Miami. Jackson Health’s media office said the new system would not involve appointments for the county-run hospital network.

The current county system largely revolves around online reservation portals that can open hours — or minutes — after an announcement on Levine Cava’s Twitter feed, which has become a must-follow for people wanting the most recent information on vaccine options.

The tech-heavy system — and the central role of the mayor’s social media platform — helped fuel complaints of a process that favors people with the time and resources to track Twitter and quickly pounce when reservations open again. This week, the Levine Cava administration launched a telephone line allowing for vaccine reservations without a computer.

Black ZIP codes worst for COVID vaccination

Vaccine data show the county’s wealthiest ZIP codes also have some of the county’s highest vaccination rates. The gap falls along racial lines, too. The 10 ZIP codes with the highest portion of Black residents in Miami-Dade also have seven of the county’s 10 lowest vaccination rates, according to data from Miami-Dade and the Census.

“While we have quickly put systems in place to distribute vaccines efficiently and safely, we must also ensure they’re being distributed equitably to protect all our communities and to move forward together,” she said.

She described a system that a spokeswoman confirmed would end the closely watched announcements of new vaccination appointments by the county. Instead, Miami-Dade plans to open phone lines and a website allowing people 65 and over to register once, and then be notified when supplies arrive to accommodate them for vaccinations. Florida launched a similar system this week for state-run vaccination sites at Hard Rock Stadium and Marlins Park.

The new county system, expected to debut next week, will mean “no need to constantly re-apply. And it will allow us to fairly allocate vaccines as quickly as we receive new supplies,” Levine Cava said.

Commissioner Raquel Regalado introduced a bill instructing Levine Cava to create the kind of system the mayor announced Friday. Regalado, who represents the southern reaches of Miami and its suburbs, said the current system has commission offices flooded by seniors unable to navigate online vaccination options. That causes a scramble when Miami-Dade announces new vaccination slots.

“If you went by County Hall, you see all of our staffers logging in to the Miami-Dade portal,” Regalado said. “Everybody was trying to get different people in. That’s why a comprehensive list would make more sense.”

Rachel Johnson, Levine Cava’s communications director, said the new system will end announcements for new vaccine openings because “we will be directly contacting people in our database.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 2:51 PM.