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AdventHealth to begin vaccinating patients under age 65 who have serious health issues

ORLANDO, Fla. — Officials at AdventHealth say they plan to administer COVID-19 vaccines to 500 people Tuesday who are under the age of 65 and have serious health issues.

AdventHealth says it’s the first time they’ve been given doses of the vaccine to be set aside specifically for that particular group.

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The first shipment of vaccines that arrived in mid-December was prioritized towards healthcare workers.

Then, about a month ago, there was another delivery of vaccines for seniors age 65 and older.

Now, as Dr. Scott Brady of AdventHealth notes, the latest batch is specifically for people under 65 who are extremely vulnerable to the virus.

“Your highest of high risk,” Dr. Brady says.

AdventHealth received 500 doses for that group, but the appointments have already been filled.

“The entire community has been scared for 11 months,” Dr. Brady says. “There’s nobody that I know that doesn’t want them for themselves or their family.”

As for determining who gets a shot, AdventHealth says they reached out to the patients they feel fall into the “extremely vulnerable” category.

Dr. Brady says that includes, for example, very high-risk transplant patients, and cancer patients on chemotherapy and immunosuppressant medications.

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AdventHealth says their appointments filled up so quickly because they have so many other patients who also fall into the extremely vulnerable category, and the vaccine supply just isn’t there to offer it to them all right now.

At Orlando Health, they’ve received 2,000 doses that will go directly to medically vulnerable patients being cared for there.

They released a statement saying they’re working through logistics and timing in order to ensure “an effective, efficient vaccination process.”

Both Advent and Orlando Health can only offer the vaccines to their patients for now, but they hope that changes once supply increases.

“We want to vaccinate everybody, not just if you are loyal to one system or the other,” Dr. Brady says.

State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith- one of the driving forces behind the push to vaccinate this group- has said every bit of progress makes a difference.

”Even a small supply can go a long way in helping people who desperately need this vaccine.”

This week, Florida received 40,000 more doses of the vaccine than last week.

At that rate, hospitals could soon open vaccinations up to others in the community rather than just their patients.

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Health First’s Holmes Regional and Palm Bay Medical Centers are also set to receive vials to vaccinate this group.

They haven’t said exactly how many they’re getting and whether they’ve started reaching out to their patients for appointments.