More vaccines coming to Palm Beach County

The state expects to receive 307,000 doses of vaccine next week, up from 266,000 this week.

After an outcry about access to COVID-19 vaccines in Palm Beach County, Publix will no longer be the only game in town if you want to get a shot.

The state Department of Health in the county will receive 5,000 additional doses of vaccine next week, allocated to communities that don’t have a Publix pharmacy.

The decision came days after public officials lambasted Gov. Ron DeSantis for relying on Publix to distribute vaccines in Palm Beach County. The move left many residents, most of them poor, with no way to get protected, they said.

The South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Friday that poor, largely Black communities in many of Florida’s metro areas have limited access to Publix pharmacies.

Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay said Florida Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz called her Friday, informing her of the decision to allocate 5,000 doses for poorer communities like the one she represents, the Glades agricultural region in the western county,

Moskowitz “was very appreciative for the outreach and drawing this issue to his attention,” McKinlay said. “He immediately offered to fix the situation, and all I can do is be happy this is happening.”

The state expects to receive 307,000 doses of vaccine next week, up from 266,000 this week, DeSantis

said Tuesday. A portion of those additional doses will be allocated to Palm Beach County.

The state also plans to have a vaccine distribution center up and running by Friday at the Palm Beach State campus in Belle Glade.

Earlier this week, Dr. Alina Alonso, the state health department director in Palm Beach County, said that vaccines initially earmarked for the department were instead reallocated to Publix pharmacies, making the giant grocer the primary distributor of vaccines in the county.

McKinlay said local officials, community activists and farmers from the western region flooded the state with calls about being left out of the vaccine distribution process. Many of those areas, some with more than 30% poverty, have no Publix pharmacy nearby, according to an analysis by the Sun Sentinel.

McKinlay called out the governor during a county commission meeting Tuesday.

“I am absolutely disgusted the governor of this state has 100% percent taken the ability to vaccinate our residents in Palm Beach County out of the hands of our public health officials and medical officials and given that authority to a corporate entity,” she said.