Jackson patient in the last year? Hospital may contact you to offer COVID-19 vaccine
If you are a senior and were a patient in MiamiDade County’s Jackson Health System in the last year, be sure to answer your phone this weekend.
Jackson Health System has received an additional shipment of COVID-19 vaccines, and is in the process of contacting about 10,000 Miami-Dade County residents age 65 and older who have been patients at a Jackson hospital to offer them appointments.
Those contacted must reserve their spot by Sunday evening, according to Jackson spokeswoman Lidia Amoretti.
If Jackson has additional inventory after those slots are filled, they plan to open appointments to anyone 65 and older starting Monday. The hospital system’s first portal for vaccine appointments launched Tuesday, and was full minutes after its official opening time of 11 a.m.
Some seniors and families reported they had been able to register for an appointment as early as 9 a.m., hours before the advertised launch time, causing headaches for those who were trying to snag a spot. Some people who did end up getting appointments were told to come back the next day because of timing issues.
On Tuesday, a message posted on Jackson’s website said that more than 12,000 vaccine appointments had been booked for the week. The three sites — the Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation
Center in Miami, the North Dade Health Center in Miami Gardens and the Jackson South Medical Center in Kendall — are open for vaccinations seven days a week, with an initial goal of vaccinating 2,000 seniors a day.
The vaccine being given through Jackson Health System is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which requires two shots, three weeks apart.
As more supplies are acquired, new appointments will be added. Anyone interested should continue to check Jackson’s COVID-19 web page throughout the coming days.