Jackson CEO predicts more than 1 million COVID vaccinations by May in Miami-Dade

Miami-Dade’s overwhelmed COVID-19 vaccination efforts should expand dramatically in the coming weeks, with almost every willing senior citizen vaccinated by early February and more than 1 million people receiving doses by May, the head of the county’s public hospital system said Tuesday.

“That is the current plan today,” Jackson Health CEO Carlos Migoya said during a Tuesday press conference with city and county leaders and healthcare administrators. “Depending on what the supply is ... we can make this shorter.”

Migoya’s bullish prediction captures just how far Miami-Dade has to go in the vaccination efforts. So far, about 30,000 doses have been administered countywide — less than 3% of the 1.2 million people Migoya said he thinks can be vaccinated through the end of April.

The trajectory depends on national vaccine production, local healthcare staffing and capabilities, willingness of the general public to be injected, as well as the stream of supplies sent to Miami-Dade by the administration of Gov. Ron DeSantis, which controls Florida’s vaccine distribution.

While the state has supplied vaccines to a string of drive-up vaccination sites at county parks in Broward County, Miami-Dade is still waiting for that phase of the vaccination process.

“We have heard loudly and clearly from our seniors that you are ready for the vaccine,” Daniella Levine Cava, the county’s mayor, said in the online news conference. “The demand is much larger than the supply.”

Miami-Dade maintains a website with links to the few hospitals offering vaccination appointments to the public.

Computer access an issue for appointments

With most vaccination appointments offered online, Miami-Dade is urging residents aged 65 and over without Internet access to visit county libraries to reserve time slots on computers there.

Kionne McGhee, a county commissioner representing parts of South Miami-Dade, said he’s dispatching four staff members to communities where computer access is spotty to offer use of county computers for booking.

“Phones are continuously ringing,” he said. “Constituents are calling and inquiring about new appointment dates.”

Vaccines coming to Hard Rock, Marlins Park

Levine Cava and Migoya said Tuesday the DeSantis administration is pursuing drive-up vaccinations at large state-run testing sites, including Hard Rock Stadium.

On Monday, DeSantis said he expected Jackson to help bring vaccinations to Marlins Park, a state-run site in Miami. The city’s mayor, Francis Suarez, confirmed the news in a Twitter post after Tuesday’s online news conference, writing “we are in the process of repurposing Marlins Park into a vaccination center, similar to the way it was converted into a testing site” in March.

In an interview, Suarez said he expected city first responders to staff the site and that the federal government would likely cover the cost.

Migoya said he expected Miami-Dade to meet all vaccine demand for people over the age of 64 by early February, and then begin opening up the process to the broader population.

With the DeSantis administration expected to double its vaccine supplies over the next two weeks or so, Migoya said he sees Miami-Dade vaccinating as many as 75,000 people a week by February.

1.2 million people vaccinated by May?

That would put Miami-Dade on track for about 1.2 million vaccinations by the end of April. Combined with the population protected from the virus by past infections — there have been about 300,000 positive cases in Miami-Dade, according to state figures — and Migoya said the county would be “close” to herd immunity by the time May arrives.

That’s the umbrella term for enough people having immunity to a virus that it struggles to find other hosts for spreading — a target typically pegged at 70%. With 2.7 million people in Miami-Dade, a 70% target would mean nearly 1.9 million people immune through infection or vaccination.

Migoya said he expected at least three state-run sites to open within 10 days, along with a wave of new vaccination options from local healthcare providers.

Florida’s Department of Health said its Miami-Dade office plans to launch vaccination clinics as early as next week. That’s also when Baptist Health, one of the county’s largest private hospitals, expects to launch its own online vaccination registration for members of the public to match the one Jackson debuted on Tuesday.

Bo Boulenger, Baptist’s chief operating officer, said the hospital system used its first wave of vaccine doses to vaccinate its front-line workers and doctors. Now it’s expanding the effort to include physicians and staff outside the hospital, and to vulnerable Baptist patients undergoing treatment for cancer and other serious illnesses.

“We’re receiving the vaccine continuously,” he said. “As soon as they’re delivered, we’re getting them into people’s arms.”

Miami Herald staff writer Joey Flechas contributed to this report.