Two vaccination centers run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency opened Sunday morning in Duval County.
The satellite sites moved from the Westside and Northwest Jacksonville to the Carver Center on 5th Avenue South in Jacksonville Beach and the Oceanway Center on Sago Avenue West on the Northside.
According to FEMA, the sites will open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for 10 days -- through March 23. The sites will offer the Pfizer vaccine, and up to 500 shots can be administered a day at each site.
The walk-up sites don’t require an appointment, and shots will be administered on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Dozens of people are lined up outside the carver rec center. Line now wraps around the playground! @wjxt4 pic.twitter.com/DVTRlNuhPF
— Brittany Muller (@BrittMullerNews) March 14, 2021
Kelsy Adams, who works in higher education, waited in her car for the site at the Carver Center to open. She and a friend traveled about two hours from Gainesville to get vaccinated.
“Everything is full yeah. It’s just ... the medical facility and everything, you just can’t get in there are people that are higher priority,” Adams said. “So let’s try [the Jacksonville Beach site]. Nothing else, we go to the each get some food and drive back.”
An hour before the site opened at the Carver Center, the line started growing and wrapped around the building.
People who live at the beaches said it’s about accessibility.
“It’s a relief. We’ve all been kind of waiting, so it’s nice,” said Jacksonville Beach resident Liz Root. “I still want us to be cautious until a majority of us are vaccinated. I just don’t want it to be a free-for-all.”
“We need to get it readily available for everybody so we can get back to doing what we need to do,” said Ponte Vedra Beach resident Burl White.
There was no line at the Oceanway Center site Sunday morning when News4Jax stopped by.
A second @femaregion4 satellite site opened this morning at Oceanway community Center on Sago Avenue West. Currently no line! This site can vaccinate 500 people per day with the Pfizer shot @wjxt4 pic.twitter.com/794tgTm8MS
— Brittany Muller (@BrittMullerNews) March 14, 2021
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The two original satellite sites at the Normandy Community Center and the Hammond Senior Center will return for second-dose shots.
FEMA opened the two satellite sites in conjunction with the federally-supported vaccination clinic at the Gateway Mall on the Northside. The site located on Norwood Avenue is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. seven days a week and can administer 3,000 shots a day. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is offered at the Gateway Mall site -- not the sites at the Carver and Oceanway centers.
Starting Monday, the age for people to qualify for vaccinations drops to 60 at all sites in Florida.