JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A new COVID-19 vaccination site at Edward Waters College will distribute 200 vaccines a day to the surrounding community.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced the site opening in partnership with Agape Family Health. The site is one out of six new permanent sites opening across the state for underserved communities.
“The goal here is to be able to reach out to anyone who may fall through the cracks,” DeSantis said at the college.
The site at Edward Waters College will be open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.. Mia Jones, CEO of Agape Family Health Center, says that Agape and community organizations will reach out to neighbors door-to-door to make sure that anyone interested can get an appointment. People can walk-up to the site at the James Weldon Johnson Building and make an appointment, or they can go online and make an appointment here.
Registration will be based of zip code for residents of the North and Northwest sides of Jacksonville.
“Hope is alive because of a plan and a strategy,” Mayor Lenny Curry said at the briefing.
Shortly after the announcement, Representative Tracie Davis released a statement saying that this new permanent vaccine site is beneficial to the African American community.
“Trust is a factor in the African American community regarding vaccinations that must be acknowledged. Today is about our community, equitable access, and doing more than just enough; it is bigger than politics,” Davis said in a press release. “I am confident with Edward Waters College and other community partners working together to provide a permanent vaccination site in this community that will increase the trust and more African Americans will have access to the coronavirus vaccination in an effort to save lives.”
DeSantis also announced that Duval, Nassau, and Clay St. Johns Counties are above fifty percent for vaccinating seniors. In Duval County, 55 percent of seniors, 65 and up, have been vaccinated. In St. Johns County, 75 percent of seniors have been vaccinated. DeSantis says that due to the large amount of vaccinations in seniors being above the state average, the state will most likely start expanding the age limit down in mid-March. This will depend on vaccine supply.