A federal vaccine site in Jacksonville can handle 500 people a day. Only 29 had the chance Thursday

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – As more vaccines become available, demand in Duval County appears to be dropping.

At a federal location in Jacksonville with a capacity of 500 people, only 29 were shot on Thursday.

Thousands of doses have been made available at new federal locations in Jacksonville, but so far only a third of that supply appears to be in use each day.

On Friday, Governor Ron DeSantis addressed the issue of demand. He said that the age restriction will be reduced in March.

But now there are people who do not meet the age requirements on the websites in the hope of getting the remaining photos.

With teachers of all ages eligible for the vaccine, there has been a steady flow of people at the federal vaccination site at Gateway Mall, but only a small number of people at the two satellite locations in Jacksonville. This is one of the reasons why the governor will announce further changes to age requirements in the near future.

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“We are going to take an age-based approach going forward. This will happen in March. We are going to move the era down. I don’t have that exact date because it depends on the vaccine supply and it depends on making sure that we are getting vaccines for the elderly, ”said DeSantis.

He said the minimum age requirement is more than likely to drop from 65 to 60 and then to 55, and an announcement will be made later this month.

The announcement comes at a time when demand appears to be slowing.

On Thursday, at the Gateway Mall site, 840 injections were delivered at a site set up to administer 2,000 vaccines per day. At the two satellite sites, 150 people were vaccinated at the Westside site, but only 29 people were shot at the site in Northwest Jacksonville. Each of the satellite sites has the capacity to take 500 photos a day.

On the state’s website at the Regency Mall, Wednesday’s latest figures show 1,780 shots were administered at a location that can handle 2,000 first and second shots.

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Edward Waters College can vaccinate 200 people a day and on Thursday administered 247 injections because the team said it received extra doses from the vials.

News4Jax talked to health experts in Jacksonville about the impact of reducing age requirements for the vaccine. One experiment said that the younger population may not be as interested in being vaccinated.

“Is the demand there? Obviously, people like me, from public health and epidemiology, want the largest possible number of people to be vaccinated. But that does not mean that these people want to be vaccinated for several reasons, ”said Chad Neilsen, from UF Health. “Maybe they have preconceived notions about the vaccine, maybe they’re not sure yet. But everything is fine. This means that we have to start educating more. “