Miami-Dade Mayor Says Launch of COVID Appointment Site

MIAMI – According to the Centers for Disease Control, there are now 125 cases of the B117 strain, also known as the British variant. That variant has been discovered in Florida, with more than half the cases in Broward and Miami-Dade counties.

The race is on to get South Florida vaccinated. On Sunday 1,200 people were vaccinated at the Hard Rock Stadium.

Researchers at the University of Miami are actively looking for variant cases by looking for the virus in patients at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Since Floridians have had trouble making arrangements since vaccination distribution began, the state hopes to make it easier with a centralized website: myvaccine.fl.gov.

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said Sunday at This Week in South Florida that the county will also unveil a similar registration site this week.

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“The biggest problem is the supply,” said Levine Cava. “We will allow people to sign up only once and we will deduct from that list as soon as inventory becomes available, but we will not book appointments until we receive our assignment each week.”

The site where people can sign up for an appointment is vaccines.nomihealth.com/mdc.

“I created the centralized information site miamidade.gov/vaccine, also available in Spanish and Creole, and we have now ordered all the issuing sites to provide us with the information they have. The state is doing its thing, and if the federal government gets involved, you know they will do their thing, and the important point is that the public needs a centralized source of information so as not to have the fear of constantly hunting, ”Levine Cava said.

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The demand for vaccines is currently higher than the available supply.

Despite the fact that black and Hispanic people are disproportionately affected by COVID-19, many in these communities are not receiving vaccines.

Lack of access and distrust are some of the reasons infectious disease expert Dr. Hansel Tookes blames this phenomenon.

“There is profound mistrust of the vaccine in minority communities, and Tuskegee is an example of evil, but what I tell my patients is that we cannot allow the evil of what happened in Tuskegee to harm us today in 2021” says Dr. Tookes said Sunday at This Week in South Florida.

This community skepticism is nothing new. The Tuskegee Syphilis experiment in the 1930s is just one example of a disease progressing without treatment.

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Local research is also being carried out into how well vaccines protect against the British strain. The more communicable British strain is potentially more dangerous.

“(This) variant is not only more contagious, but perhaps also more serious,” said FIU infectious disease expert Dr. Aileen Marty earlier this weekend.

RELATED LINKS:

How to Get Coronavirus Vaccines in Miami-Dade County

Where are the coronavirus vaccine sites in Broward County?

Print your forms before you go, click here.

Time for your second vaccine? Here’s What You Should Know

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WATCH: This Week in South Florida: Dr. Hansel Tookes

WATCH: This week in South Florida: Daniella Levine Cava