Palm Beach County not ready to expand eligibility.

Palm Beach County has no plans yet to make COVID-19 vaccines available to people under age 50, even if some other counties are taking that step, the county’s top health official said Tuesday.

Miami-Dade and Orange counties both have lowered the eligibility age to 40 at county sites, although it remains at 50 in the rest of the state.

Two county commissioners suggested Tuesday that the county should follow suit and drop the age requirement to 40. Dr. Alina Alonso, the state health department director for Palm Beach County, shot down that possibility, saying the county has to follow the state guidelines since they’re relying on state vaccine and don’t have federal vaccination sites.

“I don’t see how we can [lower the age requirement] as long as we’ve got an executive order that defines our state vaccine,” Alonso said.

Palm Beach County

Commissioner Robert Weinroth disagreed, saying, “If [Gov. DeSantis] is not going to have a problem with Orlando and Miami going 40 and over, I don’t see why we can’t ask to have the same thing.”

Alonso replied that she didn’t have the authority to ask the state to lower the age requirement, calling it a

“political” decision.

Palm Beach County Mayor Dave Kerner sided against taking action on the matter.

“I would never recommend this board attempts to overstep the governor. It’s his prerogative to write those executive orders and we have an obligation to comply with them,” he said.

Alonso said people in Palm Beach County who are 40 and over can travel farther south for a vaccine.

“The federal sites welcome you come to them,” she said. “They welcome you to go down [to Miami] if you want to go to a federal site, but in Palm Beach County we are having to follow the governor’s executive order.”