JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville will be forced to close down two city-run COVID-19 vaccine sites at the end of the day Thursday if it doesn’t receive more doses.
During a Tuesday afternoon news conference, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry said the city sites will exhaust vaccine supply by the end of the day Thursday, and it’s unclear when those sites will be able to reopen.
“We stand ready to open more sites, if — if is important — if the supplies are available,” Curry said. “Please understand that the city of Jacksonville does not control the supply chain and what’s available. While the state of Florida determines who receives their weekly allotment and how much, they don’t even know how much they will get on a week to week basis.”
Curry said the 8,000 people who have already received their first dose at one of the two sites will still be able to get their second dose.
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Curry said the entire state received 275,000 units of the vaccine last week. The state is notified every seven days how many vaccine doses Florida will receive the following week, he added, and this number has varied each time.
Leon Haley, CEO of UF Health Jacksonville, said he is facing the same issue.
“We, too, will be out of vaccine probably this week if we don’t get a second round,” Haley said.
Between UF Health hospitals in Jacksonville and Gainesville, Haley said, about 35,000 health care workers and patients have received at least their first dose in the last month.
Haley said the city is still firmly in the middle of the second wave of COVID-19 infections, but there have been some encouraging signs recently.
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As of Tuesday, there were 510 patients COVID-19 patients in Jacksonville hospitals, 68 of whom were on a ventilator and 120 of whom were in intensive care units. On Monday, there were 536 total patients.
“So the good news is we are starting to see a little bit of a turn in how hospitals and hospitalizations that are occurring across the city,” Haley said. “The mayor mentioned that the positivity rate in the city of Jacksonville is now at 8.4%. That’s good because just as recently as two weeks ago it was 15%.”
Monday marked the first time that fewer than 10,000 cases were reported in a day since Dec. 28 when 8,198 cases were reported.
Curry said the state-run site at the Prime Osborn Convention Center will still offer vaccinations and the state has plans to begin administering vaccinations at Regency Square Mall sometime in the future.
