Holiday park COVID-19 vaccine welcomes elderly people without appointments

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. The demand for the COVID-19 vaccine is so great that drivers were already queuing at Holiday Park in Fort Lauderdale around 02:00 on Thursday.

At the time, Holiday Park vaccinated people aged 65 or older on a first-to-first-serve basis, forcing them to close during the day and reopen to avoid pressure.

“We do not want to create a traffic hazard on US-1, so we will close it when we get full, and then, when it reopens, we will allow more people,” said Fort Lauderdale City Manager Chris Lagerbloom.

Eventually, public health officials plan to make the Holiday Park premises by appointment only. The decision not to require appointments is due to Broward residents’ inability to make appointments online.

The Holiday Park site is open from Tuesday to Saturday from 08:00 to 16:00. But on Thursday there were so many people that they were forced to close temporarily at 13:00

Dave Altneu made the cut.

“Right now we’re in good shape as soon as we get it,” Altneu said. He will still need to receive a second shot of the vaccine to get 95% protection.

Drivers with labels from other states also lined up at the Fort Lauderdale site because Governor Ron DeSantis did not need proof of residence to receive the vaccine in Florida.

“We really do not discriminate against who gets the vaccines,” Lagerbloom said.

The average waiting time for those who made the cut was two hours.

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