After immunizing nearly 31,000 South Floridians against COVID-19, the University of Miami Health System is transitioning its mass vaccination program for adults and is now offering the vaccine only to eligible children through its Pediatric Mobile Clinic.
The University’s largest vaccination site—in the parking lot of Converge Miami near the Medical Campus—and a second site at the Patti and Allan Herbert Wellness Center on the Coral Gables Campus, are now closed. Students and faculty and staff members who have not been vaccinated against the novel coronavirus are highly encouraged to get the shot from community vaccination sites or their local pharmacy.
“We still very much want people to get vaccinated; however, the situation now is different from what it was in December when we started offering vaccines to those who were eligible,” said Dr. Roy Weiss, chief medical officer for COVID-19 and chair of the Miller School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine. “Vaccines are now readily available at local pharmacies and other clinics in the area, and it’s just much more convenient for people to get the vaccine close to their homes and at a time that it is convenient for them.”
In mid-December, the University of Miami opened its first vaccine site in a tent just outside UHealth Tower. At the time, only front-line health care workers, and very shortly after, people 65 and older, could be vaccinated in Florida. But as the state broadened its guidelines, the University expanded its vaccination sites. In late December, the University’s COVID-19 Vaccine Taskforce added a second location at the Don Soffer Clinical Research Center on the Medical Campus for patients and employees, which was operating at the same time as the UHealth Tower site. Then, in late January, the task force moved its main vaccination tent to the Converge Miami site, which became the primary vaccination site.
In short order, the operation went from injecting 500 people a day to 1,200 per day, said Kathryn Stella, operations lead for the COVID-19 vaccine distribution effort and assistant vice president for ambulatory operations for UHealth. And in April, the task force opened a fourth vaccination site at the Herbert Wellness Center on the Coral Gables Campus. Ultimately, the University vaccinated more than 18,000 patients, 4,200 students, 7,600 employees or others who work on the University’s three campuses, and about 340 community health care providers.
“At a time like this, when you are part of the answer to what has been an unprecedented time for all of us, I feel very fortunate,” Stella said.
Weiss credited strong collaboration between many departments at the University for the successful vaccination effort.
“We did quite well, and we offered the vaccine to everyone who wanted it,” Weiss said. “That was the goal—until the demand subsided.”
Planning for the vaccinations began in August and escalated drastically in November shortly before the first vaccine received emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early December, said Vince Torres, emergency management director for UHealth and the Miller School of Medicine. Efforts to streamline the process helped ensure that not a single dose of the vaccine was spoiled and that most patients were able to be vaccinated and leave within a half hour, according to Torres and Stella.
“This was a logistical and operational challenge, but it was what we needed to do to stop the pandemic,” Torres said. “And the University is doing its part because we are one of the top vaccinators in Miami-Dade County, next to Jackson Health System.”
To get an inoculation against COVID-19, visit the vaccine search website to find a nearby location.
