Miami to start at-home vaccinations for seniors after state supplies doses
Miami first responders will begin administering COVID-19 vaccines to homebound seniors Saturday after the city received 3,500 doses of the Moderna vaccine from the Florida Department of Health on Friday.
Miami-Dade County is receiving 1,000 doses for distribution, as well. Details were not immediately available on how the doses will be split among distribution sites.
Miami Mayor Francis Suarez said the city’s emergency personnel will start visiting homebound seniors in each of the city’s five commission districts to offer coronavirus vaccines. Under the policy set by Gov. Ron DeSantis, people 65 and older are eligible to receive the vaccine. Officials will reach out to residents who have requested at-home COVID-19 testing and delivery of grocery gift cards before under a pandemic relief program.
The city will also send
mobile vaccination units to areas with many elderly residents to offer vaccines close to home.
The announcement comes one day after Suarez and commissioners asked the city attorney to pursue legal avenues to restrict vaccinations to residents within city limits, a policy the mayor branded “Miami First.” He said he aims to prevent “vaccine tourism” from foreigners who want to come to Miami for a dose. State and local officials were quick to point out that federal regulations prevent residency requirements on vaccines.
In a separate resolution from the “Miami First” policy, Commissioner Manolo Reyes sponsored a program for homebound seniors.
“Many of our senior residents are homebound and do not live in longterm care facilities and are
unable to go to a designated vaccination site,” Reyes said in a statement. “We must make sure these residents do not fall through the cracks and have access to the vaccine once they become eligible.”
The program effectively limits vaccinations to elders in the city of Miami because the city’s first responders only have jurisdiction within city limits.
“Each commissioner will send us sites and a list of seniors that want to receive the vaccine in their respective districts,” Suarez said in a statement Friday. “Based on that information, the city will be contacting the seniors and the buildings to start vaccinating as early as tomorrow.”