WASHINGTON – The federal government is opening five new Covid-19 mass vaccination centers in Florida and Pennsylvania, increasing the number of distribution points that are not being left for state governments to operate.
In addition, the Biden government says the federal government is working to make up for the lost ground in the bad weather that closed thousands of vaccination posts across the country.
The new centers administered by the federal government in Florida will be in Miami, Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville and the target is 12,000 vaccinations per day in the four locations. In Pennsylvania, the federal government will open a facility at the Philadelphia Convention Center designed to deliver 6,000 doses per day. The sites are due to open in the next two weeks.
The new sites are part of a broader effort that the Biden government says will accelerate distribution and target disadvantaged groups and those most affected by the pandemic, such as blacks and Latinos. The sites were chosen based on their ability to reach the most affected populations who have the least access to medical care, said Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to the White House to respond to the pandemic.
Last week, bad weather and power outages shut down 2,000 vaccination centers, said Slavitt. But as conditions improved, he said he believed that next week the federal government could make up for the drop in vaccinations, he said.
“Whatever reduction we see on the average of seven days this week, if we all work together, from the factory to the vaccinator, we will make up for it next week,” said Slavitt.
The government opened its first two mass vaccination sites in California this month – one at the Oakland Coliseum, where the Oakland Athletics baseball team plays, and the other on the California State University campus in Los Angeles. The government said it plans to open more mass vaccination sites, including stadiums, community centers and parking lots.
Two of the Florida locations will be on college campuses, one on a dog race track and the fourth at a shopping mall.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was criticized after the state maintained a “pop-up” vaccination clinic in a community that was developed by a political supporter and whose residents are mostly wealthy.
DeSantis said the state’s “elderly first strategy” focuses on using retirement communities and that the site selected was an area where a small percentage of the elderly have been vaccinated.
