JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Beginning Thursday morning, there will be two more places to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Jacksonville. State officials announced Wednesday the two sites, one at the Legends Center and the other at Celebration Church, are two of nine sites the state is opening across the state in minority-based neighborhoods.
The Legends Center site, which also provides COVID tests, started giving shots Monday. Celebration Church on the Southside will administer shots starting Thursday morning.
"The Legends Center has been one of the best performing testing sites in Jacksonville for a long, long time and we saw an opportunity there to partner with the City of Jacksonville[...] and some other partners there to continue the good good work that’s been going on," Kevin Guthrie, the Deputy Director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said.
The Legends Center is located at 5130 Soutel Drive and Celebration Church is located at 9555 R G Skinner Parkway.
According to Guthrie, the two sites are using unused doses from the Regency and Gateway sites' supplies.
"These new sites get open because we have the extra doses that we could do more stuff with in Jacksonville," he said. "That's what's allowing us to get over to the Legend Center. That's what's allowing us to get over to the Celebration Church. So, again, we try to use absolutely every dose that is allotted and allocated for Jacksonville in the Jacksonville market," Guthrie said.
The five vaccination sites in Jacksonville, not including Legends and Celebration, haven't met their combined capacity of 6,500 doses per day yet. Tuesday, about 49% of the doses were unused at the sites combined.
Regency used 1,386 out of the 2,000 doses it's allotted per day, about 69%. Gateway used 1,378 out of the 3,000 it's allotted per day, about 46%.
When asked if one of the reasons the two new sites were opening is because Governor Ron DeSantis hasn't opened up the shot to everyone and they need to do something with the doses, Guthrie said, "I don't think you can [...] I would not [...] make that link."
He did, however, acknowledge the sites haven't met their capacities, creating extra doses, which allows the state to open these new sites.
"To date, Jacksonville has put 28,870 shots in arms at the Jacksonville hub at Gateway Mall," Guthrie said. "A couple of more numbers: At all the spoke sites over the last three weeks they've done 9,555 for a rough total of let's say around 38 [thousand], 39,000 shots that have been done."
"I think that's a great testament to the community coming out and wanting to get the shot. We obviously did not meet our cap and again I think again this is another conversation that has to be talked about is capacity," Guthrie said. "We say that the sites have the capacity to do 3,000, 3,500 a day and that's a planning assumption. It's not success or failure as to whether we actually meet 3,500 or 3,000 each day. It's just what our planning capacity is."
"Every one of those shots will eventually get used in that market," Guthrie said.
Each site has its capacity for that day stored in a freezer at the site, according to Guthrie. Based on how many people are in line and how many appointments were made, they'll take out a certain number of doses to thaw and then put the approximate number in syringes. It takes doses six hours to thaw.
"We're very, very conservative. When it comes to that, we only thaw the doses that we know we're going to put in arms," Guthrie said.
If there are doses left out at the end of the day not in a syringe, they can go back into the fridge and are good for about four days. Guthrie said they'll be used immediately the next business day. If there are doses that have been put in a syringe leftover at the end of the day, which he said rarely happens, they'll vaccinate whoever is in line, whether they meet the criteria or not.
Guthrie said they never throw away doses.
"We have zero waste," he said.
The Duval Department of Health houses doses and brings over the allotted amount to sites each day, Guthrie explained.
"We only take what we need for that day," he said.
When asked when everyone will be able to get the vaccine, Guthrie referred First Coast News to the governor's office. The governor said earlier in the week everyone would be able to get a shot before May 1.
"Certainly we [Florida Division of Emergency Management] receive the allocations in the Division of Emergency Management in cohort with cohort with the Florida Department of Health, and we know what the allocations are coming in," Guthrie said. "We know what’s going on outside the site we can see what the threw put is and we make those recommendations to the governor’s office and then the governor makes those decisions based on data driven analytics."
FCN reached out to the governor's office asking when everyone will be able to get the shot and when criteria will change and haven't heard back.
Guthrie said he isn't discouraged at all that some supply isn't being used.
"I’m actually encouraged by the numbers that we’re seeing. We’re not going to get 100%," Guthrie explained. "I think you live in a utopian world if you think we’re going to reach 100% vaccination."
"I would like to see, personally, as many people get the shot as possible because I do believe a shot in an arm is a life that is potentially saved, so what’s the number going to be? I don’t think any of us know what that number is going to be," Guthrie said. "I am extremely encouraged, though, by the 65 plus section that’s over 75% [vaccinated]. I would love to see us get over 70% state-wide."
The Legends Center is open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Celebration Church is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
No appointments are needed at either site to get the shot. Each site will administer 200 doses per day of just first doses of the Pfizer vaccine for the first three weeks. That number will increase to 400 doses, half for second doses, after that three weeks.
Legend Center's doses come from Gateway’s stockpile, a federally supported site, so it has federal guidelines: 50 and older, long-term care facility residents and staff, frontline health care workers, those who are extremely vulnerable and school employees K-12 any of any age.
Celebration’s doses are coming from Regency Mall, a state-run, state-supported site, so the criteria follows the state’s criteria.
The only difference from the federal criteria is K-12 school employees must be 50 or older to get the shot there.
According to an executive order by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the following groups are the only ones eligible for a vaccine in the state:
- Persons aged 50 or older
- Long-Term Care Facility Residents and Staff
- Healthcare Personnel with Direct Patient Contact
- K-12 School Employees – Ages 50 or Older
- Sworn Law Enforcement – Ages 50 or Older
- Firefighters - Ages 50 or Older
- People with high vulnerability to COVID-19
People who wish to pre-register for vaccine appointments and be notified when appointments are available in their area can visit myvaccine.fl.gov.
As part of the statewide registration system, each county has a designated phone number that individuals can call and pre-register. You find the complete list of numbers by county here.