Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Vaccination on wheels
Palm Beach County considers mobile units to reach older residents
After spending months inside to avoid crowds and potential COVID-19 exposure, many older residents face a dilemma as vaccinations slowly begin across the state.
How do you get vaccinated if you don’t feel comfortable leaving the safety of your home?
The answer in Palm Beach County might be sending the vaccination to your doorstep.
With older adults at far greater risk of suffering severe COVID-related illnesses, county commissioners and health officials have discussed targeting older communities with the county’s mobile testing vehicles.
Palm Beach County currently use three mobile health clinics, including a pair of 38-foot clinics, which are staffed by a nurse practitioner, a registered nurse, two medical assistants and two registration specialists.
In Palm Beach County, over 336,000 residents are 65 or older, account
ing for 23% of the population. Much like the rest of the country, older residents in Palm Beach County have been struck harder by COVID-19. According to state data, of the 1,835 COVID-19 related deaths in Palm Beach County, 84% occurred among people 65 or older.
Palm Beach County Commissioner Maria Sachs said determining a game plan to serve the older communities is a top priority, adding that she has a 100-year-old father-in-law who doesn’t leave his condo in Century Village.
“Palm Beach County is one of the unique counties that have these large senior communities,” Sachs said. “[We should] go into our vulnerable senior communities so that they don’t have to leave to go to a place outside of their community.”
The idea of using mobile units is still in a formative stage, so it’s unclear how many people the units would be able to service or how long it would take to vaccinate the communities.
Vaccinations started last week in Florida, beginning with smaller priority groups due to a limited initial supply of vaccines. Over 49,000 people have received their first vaccination dose, according to the Florida Department of Health. The first group has included hospital personnel, frontline workers, nursing homes and longterm facilities.
Palm Beach County has 57 nursing homes and 202 assisted-living facilities, totaling 13,000 beds, according to the county.
CVS and Walgreens are handling vaccinations for those facilities.
While CDC guidelines initially placed people 65 and older in the general priority group, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday that Florida will prioritize the elderly population over essential workers such as teachers and postal workers. DeSantis did not provide specifics on when older Florida residents would be able to receive the vaccine.
Dr. Alina Alonso, Palm Beach County’s Health Department director, said mobile units could be a beneficial tool to target the older communities.
“It makes perfect sense that if we’re looking at seniors in the [nursing] facilities, we should be looking at seniors in the community,” Alonso said during a County Commission meeting last week.
“The whole issue of mobility and how much easier it would be to go to one spot and have everybody there, so that would be the ideal way we would do it.”
Pennsylvania, New York and Michigan also are considering using mobile vaccination units, according to state health plans.
Palm Beach County is slated to receive 18,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine this week, which will be focused on hospital employees and front-line workers.
Statewide, Florida received close to 180,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine last week and another 127,000 this week, according to the Orlando Sentinel. It was scheduled Tuesday to receive 367,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which will be distributed to more than 170 hospitals in Florida.