JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A glitch allowing patients to preregister even though they don’t meet qualifications to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida continued Tuesday at the Edward Waters College community site, although representatives for Agape Family Health Center, which operates the site with the state, said they hoped to have the issues ironed out by Tuesday night.
Gov. Ron DeSantis recently expanded the requirements. Now, COVID-19 vaccines in Florida are available to anyone age 65 and above; health care workers with direct patient contact; long-term care facility residents and staff; and K-12 school employees, sworn law enforcement and firefighters who are age 50 and older.
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Although the criteria don’t officially go into effect until Wednesday, Agape Health has been allowing patients who meet the expanded criteria to register through its online system.
Officials running the site encourage people to register online, but people can also make an appointment in person.
Agape Family Health Center’s staff said the system currently won’t notify people if they don’t meet the age or profession qualifications under current guidelines. They might receive a QR code confirmation and be told to show up at the vaccine site and present that code to receive the vaccine, even though they are not actually eligible.
Individuals who have registered online are screened for age priority and co-morbidities before they are given access to the vaccine.
The company is working to get the system corrected so that it won’t allow those who don’t meet the criteria to register. It hopes to have those fixes in place soon.