Publix in Palm Beach County to offer vaccine
Seniors 65 and older can make appointments
Seniors can start signing up Wednesday to get the COVID-19 vaccine from any of the 67 Publix pharmacies in Palm Beach County — the first part of South Florida where the supermarket chain will offer shots.
Statewide, there now will be 242 Publix pharmacies offering the vaccine in 18 counties. The vaccines, being given to people 65 and older, will be by appointment only and walk-ins will be turned away, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Tuesday.
Registration for the Palm Beach County pharmacies will begin at 6 a.m. Wednesday on the Publix website, at www.publix.com/ covid-vaccine/florida, and vaccines will begin Thursday. Publix is expected to provide up to 125 shots of Moderna a day at each location. People will return to the same site 28 days later for the booster shot.
Palm Beach County is among the many locations where seniors have struggled to find a place to get a spot in line. It’ll be a convenience, given that about 90% of the senior population in Palm Beach County lives within 1.5 miles of a Publix,
Palm Beach Mayor Dave Kerner said Tuesday. “So it is a very unique place, in Palm Beach County, to have this rollout on a large scale.”
Kerner met with DeSantis last week to discuss Palm Beach County serving as the first large urban county for the Publix vaccine rollout. While the Publix website is expected to be flooded with appointment requests when they become available, Kerner said he and the governor are confident the website will be able to handle the high number of visitors.
Publix pharmacies in Broward and Miami-Dade counties haven’t yet been added, but DeSantis asked for the public’s “patience” as the vaccine is gradually made available.
“We’re going to keep up the momentum,” DeSantis said.
The vaccines also will be available in Key West and Islamorada in Monroe County, he said.
Getting a vaccine has been frustrating for many seniors, who have had to struggle for a spot. Last week, 10 cities in Palm Beach County each offered 200 doses of the vaccine through their fire departments; Three of those agencies reported their sign-ups were gone within minutes.
And unlike Broward and Miami-Dade counties, Palm Beach County has no drivethru sites yet, so seniors have had to place themselves in the queue to get appointments by emailing the Florida Department of Health in Palm Beach, a system that began after the phone system crashed. That email was discontinued Tuesday “until those already in the system can be accommodated,” according to officials.
Palm Beach County is home to more than 330,000 people over the age of 65. So far, nearly 700,000 seniors have received at least their first shot throughout the state, DeSantis said.
DeSantis also appeared at other Publix locations across Florida on Tuesday. He visited a Publix in Cape Coral, in Lee County, to announce the Publix pharmacy plans in southwest Florida. DeSantis later went to a Publix in Rockledge, in Brevard County, to announce plans for cities off the Space Coast, too.
The announcements came on the same day that the United States reported at least 400,000 deaths from COVID-19 since the pandemic began, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University on Tuesday.