Teachers are next in line for COVID-19 vaccinations. Here are the next steps
Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to make teachers next in line for the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida. But not all educators will be able to get the shot immediately.
The state is hoping to expand its vaccination efforts to include teachers between the ages of 50 to 64 as early as next week, DeSantis said Tuesday in Hialeah.
That would make about 8,478 teachers in MiamiDade County Public Schools and about 5,600 teachers in Broward County Public Schools eligible for the vaccine. In the Florida Keys, about 211 teachers would be eligible, according to the Monroe County School District. None of the districts are requiring employees to get the vaccine.
While seniors remain the state’s priority, DeSantis said federal vaccination sites are “going to start” vaccinating police officers and teachers 50 years old and up.
So far, four federal mass vaccination sites are slated to open next week. One of those sites — and the only site in South Florida — will open at the north campus of Miami Dade College, 11380 NW 27th Ave. The county has been using the campus to administer vaccines by appointment only to seniors 65 and older and healthcare workers with direct patient contact.
Once MDC North turns into a federal mass vaccination site, it will take appointments for vaccinations 12 hours a day.
While Florida has a state residency requirement, there is no county requirement, which means a Broward or Monroe resident can get the vaccine in Miami-Dade or vice versa.
Florida hasn’t said yet if there will be any additional criteria teachers will have to meet if they want to get vaccinated.
When MDC North’s federal vaccination site was announced, the state said appointments for seniors 65 and older and eligible healthcare workers would become available through its statewide scheduling system. There’s no word yet if teachers would also register using the same portal, and if so, when they will be able to.
The Florida Division of Emergency Management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Some South Florida teachers and school staff have already been vaccinated because they are at least 65, a priority age group in the state’s vaccination efforts. Miami-Dade County Public Schools says it knows 1,000 of its employees 65 and older have been vaccinated through the district’s partnership with Jackson Health System, the county’s public hospital network.
The school district is also in the process of working with Jackson to see if it can secure a limited amount of vaccination appointments for employees 55 to 64 who have one of 13 medical conditions that make them high risk for severe COVID complications.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending the nation’s third coronavirus vaccine for people 18 and older, paving the way for the easier-to-use, one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be administered starting this week.
The action follows a unanimous vote Sunday by the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel, which strongly endorsed the vaccine’s effectiveness in completely protecting against hospitalization and death. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the first authorized in the United States that does not need to be kept frozen or followed by a second shot.
The clearance of a third vaccine comes at a critical inflection point in the pandemic: After weeks of steadily declining new cases in the United States, the downward trend has stalled - “a very concerning shift in the trajectory,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Friday. Experts worry that state and local officials are relaxing restrictions too quickly, and that people are letting down their guard even as more-contagious and possibly, -deadly virus variants are on the rise.
It was almost one year ago that authorities announced what was believed to be the first coronavirus death in the United States.
Since then, the toll has risen to more than 500,000 deaths of covid-19, the disease that can be caused by the coronavirus.
“Covid cases and deaths are decreasing,” said Beth Bell, a global health expert at the University of Washington who leads the panel’s coronavirus vaccine working group. “But the pandemic is very far from over and many challenges are before us. The need for more safe and effective vaccines remains urgent and vital to ending the pandemic.”
The doses are expected to start shipping as early as Monday to sites receiving doses of the authorized vaccines made by PfizerBioNTech and Moderna. Those locations include state health departments, pharmacies, federally qualified health centers and community centers.
J&J’s initial supply will be limited — 3.9 million doses are expected to be shipped this week, with an about 20 million doses by the end of March.