MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade County briefly started allowing people to sign up for new COVID-19 vaccination appointments on Monday, but all 2,000 appointments were snapped up within 10 minutes.
Some of those 2,000 appointments are taking place on Wednesday at Tropical Park.
On Wednesday, the county announced that they will open Zoo Miami as a vaccination site starting on Friday.
“We will not be testing there. There will be just one way in and one way out,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said.
The hours of operation are from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. There are 250 appointments on Friday, 500 appointments on Saturday and 500 appointments on Sunday, according to the mayor’s spokesperson, Rachel Johnson.
You can click here to access a registration page on the county’s website, though appointments will not always available. The county says to “check back periodically as additional vaccines become available.”
Lane Middleton is one of 500 senior citizens who was getting the vaccine Wednesday at Tropical Park.
“My wife lucked out and got an appointment for me at 9:30, and so here I am,” he said.
Lane got the vaccine at the same time Levine Cava came for a tour.
With tens of thousands of seniors struggling to make an appointment online, she said the county is working to get more vaccines so new appointments can be made.
“Based on the federal allocation to the state, the governor decides how to distribute it around the state,” she said. “For example, for this week, we received less than the week before, so that was discouraging because we want more.”
The county is also working to make the vaccine available to homeless senior citizens and senior citizens who either don’t have internet access or are computer illiterate.
“For so many of our older residents, they have fortunately, family members or friends or community organizations or churches that are helping them and that is what we are asking, is that people help our seniors,” the mayor said.
About a week before senior citizens are supposed to get their second shot, the county will be emailing them so they can schedule a specific time to come back.
This, despite the federal government’s decision to stop withholding vaccines for the second shot.
“We’re confident production is going to continue and you’re going to be able to get the booster shot,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
There are other groups, like police officers and teachers, who also want the vaccine.
The governor said they’re a priority too, but he first wants to get senior citizens vaccinated because they’re more likely to die from the virus if they get infected.
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Before you go: Download and fill out COVID-19 vaccine consent forms
Where are coronavirus vaccines available in Miami-Dade County?