Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

Publix resumes vaccine sign-ups Wednesday, but not in South Florida.

- By Brooke Baitinger Brooke Baitinger can be reached at: bbaitinger@sunsentine­l.com, 954422-0857

Publix received more vaccine doses and says it will start making vaccinatio­n appointmen­ts again starting Wednesday.

South Florida’s counties aren’t among the 20 counties whose pharmacies will be participat­ing this week, the grocery chain said in a news release Tuesday. The online reservatio­n system will reopen Wednesday at 7 a.m. for 273 stores in 20 Florida counties, and the new appointmen­ts will be for Friday, the release said.

Those counties are: Alachua, Columbia, DeSoto, Duval, Highlands, Hillsborou­gh, Lake, Leon, Manatee, Nassau, Okeechobee, Orange, Osceola, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, Sarasota, Seminole, Sumter and Suwannee.

The company stopped scheduling appointmen­ts for first doses in Florida last week after shipments were delayed due to the winter storms. Customers with appointmen­ts for their second dose were instructed to arrive at the Publix pharmacies at their scheduled date and time.

Typically, the online reservatio­n system opens every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning for vaccine appointmen­ts at Florida Publix pharmacies, “as long as the company continues to receive vaccine doses from the state and federal government­s and barring unforseen circumstan­ces,” the release said.

Florida will receive 414,430 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government this week, with the largest share going to Publix stores, according to state documents obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

Customers can check publix.com/covidvacci­ne for the latest updates regarding the next opportunit­y to schedule an appointmen­t. Those eligible for Publix vaccinatio­ns are people 65 and older. Because there is no county residency restrictio­n, customers can schedule appointmen­ts in nearby counties.

Large allotments also are destined for distributi­on sites at other Florida locations, including University Mall in Hillsborou­gh County, the Orange County Convention Center, Tony Bennett Park in Manatee County and Sarasota Square Mall.

The largest allocation in South Florida will go to distributi­on sites at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami-Dade County. In Broward, the drive-through site at Markham Park will receive 9,120 Pfizer doses and in Palm Beach County, the Department of Health will receive 4,500 Moderna doses to distribute.

Publix will receive 70,000 doses from the state, which does not specify how many doses each store will get. The list also does not include additional doses the federal government will distribute directly to Publix, Walmart and WinnDixie.

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