MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – While the Delta Variant of COVID-19 continues spreading and hospitalizations are on the rise, there is some positive news to report.
It appears more local students are getting vaccinated, and vaccinations in Miami-Dade County are on the rise overall.
Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced an effort between the county and local universities to get more college-aged folks vaccinated.
“We identified the number of areas where we should be able to cooperate,” she said. “Working together to set up vaccination pop up sites on campus and collaborating on key targeted messaging.”
Miami-Dade is still seeing high positivity rates and hospitalizations due to COVID-19.
“The state rate for positivity most recently has been designated as 18.1 percent,” said Dr. Peter Paige, Miami-Dade’s Chief Medical Officer. “County has been 12, up the last seven days to 13.46 percent. Median age is 36, which obviously is a different scenario than last year.”
But there’s also good news to report
Lori Tremmel Freeman with the National Association of County and City Health Officials believes Miami-Dade is actually doing pretty well when it comes to vaccinating school-age children.
“You are well ahead of the state level of vaccinations for that same age group,” Freeman said.
The Miami Dade COVID-19 dashboard shows 51% of kids between 12 and 17 have gotten at least one dose of vaccine.
Vaccinations are also going up across the board.
“Since July 21, I have seen almost a doubling of our daily average of first dose vaccinations,” said Dr. Paige.
For information on where COVID-19 vaccines are available in South Florida, click here.