Florida vaccination effort

Prospect of vaccines to wider population creates lines at COVID site in Miami

MIAMI — Hundreds of cars streamed bumper-to-bumper into a federally supported vaccination site that appeared to be offering shots to anyone who shows up, breaking from the eligibility requirements set by Gov. Ron Desantis that was intended to be put seniors at the head of the line.

The availability of the vaccine to a wider population sowed confusion — and hope — among those wanting to protect themselves from a disease that has already infected more than 1.9 million Floridians and killed nearly 32,000.

State officials said they were sorting through the situation. It was unclear what authority state officials might be able to exert on federal facilities.

Already, federal sites in Florida are adhering to federally issued guidelines that allow teachers and other school workers to get vaccinated — instead of complying with the Florida governor’s directive that sets an age minimum of 50 for educators and school staff members.

Because of initially low demand, another federally funded vaccination site in Florida City last weekend began administering shots to any takers, regardless of age. News spread, and the site was inundated the following day, prompting officials there to reimpose age restrictions.

On Tuesday morning, a traffic jam of vehicles formed in a parking lot at Miami Dade College North and a long caravan of cars snaked down a nearby street. People waited hours to get the vaccine. By 10 a.m., officials at the vaccination site announced they had depleted their supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

In other developments:

■ The U.S. is making an additional 900,000 doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines available to states and pharmacy partners this week. White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced that states and territories will receive 15.8 million doses of the two-shot vaccines, up from 15.2 million last week. Another 2.7 million doses will be distributed through the federal pharmacy program this week.

■ County health officials in Wyoming have detected the coronavirus variant that originated in South Africa.

■ Beginning Friday only two of Oregon’s 36 counties — Coos and Douglas — will remain in the “extreme risk” level category, due to COVID-19 spread in the area. In addition, Multnomah County — the state’s most populous county and home of Portland — will improve to the “moderate risk” tier.

■ Maryland will ease restrictions on restaurants and other businesses starting Friday at 5 p.m., Gov. Larry Hogan said Tuesday, citing improving COVID-19 health metrics and increasing vaccinations.

■ Gov. Andrew Cuomo says New York state will lower COVID-19 vaccine eligibility from 65 to 60 starting Wednesday.

■ Seattle officials said the start of in-person classes for some special-education students and preschoolers has been pushed back to March 29.