By middle of next week, the sites supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in South Florida will only offer booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. They will not be available for first shots, expected after March 23.
On Thursday, Mike Jachles with the Florida Association of Public Information Officers told reporters outside one of these sites — the Miami Dade College North Campus — that people should take advantage of these sites before then.
"We’re encouraging people that need to get a vaccine and meet the criteria not to wait, to come out, we have availability," Jachles said. “The reason for that is because when these sites were set up, we had an end date that was scheduled. So we did three weeks of the Pfizer vaccine and we’ll do three weeks of the second-dose Pfizer vaccine to achieve that mission.”
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The other FEMA-supported, walk-up sites operating through March 23 are at Charles Hadley Park in Liberty City and the South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center in Cutler Bay.
Starting Monday, March 22, people aged 50 and older will be able to get a vaccine at these and all sites across the state.
“The demand has been relatively modest, so we think this makes sense,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a press conference on Friday. "When we see it softening we're expanding it accordingly. We were initially thinking of doing 55 plus but you know what, we think the supply will be sufficient to cover the demand at 50 plus."
Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava has announced that starting March 29, the county's sites will drop the age cap to 40 and older, and will drop that age range by 10 years each week following that.
You can find links to make appointments at state and county sites here.
