Hundreds of elderly Floridians on scooters and in lawn chairs wait in line from 3am for almost eight hours to get their first dose of the COVID vaccine
Hundreds of elderly people were photographed waiting in line for the coronavirus vaccine on scooters and lawn chairs for nearly eight hours outside two senior citizen centers in Florida on Monday.
In Jacksonville, Florida, senior citizens patiently waited for their turn at receiving the first dose of the vaccine just before 5am. Images showed residents lining up at the Lane Wiley Senior Center.
By 9am, hundreds of people were seen bundled-up in warm clothing, some bringing chairs and reading material to pass the time.
Some were seen sitting in their scooters ahead of the vaccination start time of 11am.
Florida, the longtime retirement haven with one of the biggest concentrations of elderly people in the country, is also using Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens to dispense shots.
Elderly people were photographed waiting in line on scooters and lawn chairs for the coronavirus vaccine in Florida on Monday
In Jacksonville, Florida, dozens of senior citizens were patiently waited for their turn at receiving the first dose of the vaccine
Images showed residents lining up at the Lane Wiley Senior Center, before 5am Monday morning
By 9am, hundreds of people were seen bundled-up in warm clothing, some bringing chairs and reading material to pass the time
Some were seen sitting in their scooters ahead of the vaccination start time of 11am
Florida, the longtime retirement haven with one of the biggest concentrations of elderly people in the country, is also using Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens to dispense shots
This aerial image shows a long line of residents outside of the Lane Wiley Senior Center in Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday
Also in Jacksonville, Duval County residents were seen waiting in line outside the Mandarin Senior Center.
The senior citizens were seen waiting for the vaccine to be administered as early as 3.30am Monday morning.
Vaccines were also administered at the Mandarin Senior Center beginning at 11am.
At both senior centers, residents 65 years old and above, front-line medical workers and first responders were able to get vaccinated for COVID-19.
Phyllis Anderson, 68, of Jacksonville, expressed her discomfort regarding waiting outside in the cold for numerous hours to DailyMail.com.
She recommends that Jacksonville's mayor make drive-thru vaccinations more 'widespread'.
Florida followed federal recommendations in starting vaccinations first for front-line health workers and nursing home residents in mid-December. A little over 402,000 doses have been administered in the state, or just under 2 per cent of its population.
However, instead of putting essential workers and people over 75 next in line, as those recommendations suggested, or fully completing the first group of recipients, Gov Ron DeSantis moved to open up vaccinations more broadly to people 65 and over.
The rollouts have been uneven across the state's counties but have been met with huge demand, with some senior citizens standing in line in the chill or sleeping in their cars overnight.
DeSantis said drive-thru sites will be ramped up in the coming days.
There are also questions of whether the rich or well-connected are getting unfair access. Florida is investigating an upscale nursing home amid reports that it administered the vaccine to wealthy donors and members of a country club along with its residents and employees.
Drone footage shows the line of people waiting to get the vaccine snaking towards the parking lot and into the grounds
Florida has prioritized the elderly as part of their vaccine rollout - but many have been left lining up for hours to get the shot
Also in Jacksonville, Duval County residents were seen waiting in line outside the Mandarin Senior Center
The senior citizens were seen waiting for the vaccine to be administered as early as 3.30am Monday morning
Vaccines were also administered at the Mandarin Senior Center beginning at 11am
At both senior centers, residents 65 years old and above, front-line medical workers and first responders were able to get vaccinated for COVID-19
Florida followed federal recommendations in starting vaccinations first for front-line health workers and nursing home residents in mid-December
A little over 402,000 doses have been administered in the state, or just under 2 per cent of its population
Many residents waited in line for the vaccine for nearly eight hours on Monday morning
The US is entering the second month of the biggest vaccination drive in history with a major expansion of the campaign, opening football stadiums, major league ballparks, fairgrounds and convention centers to inoculate a larger and more diverse pool of people.
After a frustratingly slow rollout involving primarily health care workers and nursing home residents, states are moving on to the next phase before the first one is complete, making shots available to such groups as senior citizens, teachers, bus drivers, police officers and firefighters.
'Every shot in the arm is a step closer to ending this pandemic,' Michigan Gov Gretchen Whitmer said.
Similarly, in Britain, where a more contagious variant of the virus is raging out of control and deaths are soaring, seven large-scale vaccination sites opened Monday at such places as a big convention center in London, a racecourse in Surrey and a tennis and soccer complex in Manchester.
Across the US, where the outbreak has entered its most lethal phase yet and the death toll has climbed to about 375,000, politicians and health officials have complained over the past several days that too many shots were sitting unused on the shelves because of overly rigid adherence to the federal guidelines that put an estimated 24 million health care workers and nursing home residents at the front of the line.
As of Monday morning, nearly 9 million Americans had received their first shot, or 2.7 per cent of the US population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention .
Experts say as much as 85 per cent of the population will have to be inoculated to achieve 'herd immunity' and vanquish the outbreak.
Many states are responding by throwing open the line to others and ramping up the pace of vaccinations, in some cases offering them 24-7.
People are seen waiting patiently for their turn to get the first dose of the vaccination in Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday
While some people opted to sit, others leaned against bricking outside the Mandarin Senior Center in Jacksonville
A woman wraps her arm around a man as they wait in line for the first dose of the coronavirus in Jacksonville on Monday
Phyllis Anderson, 68, of Jacksonville, expressed her discomfort regarding waiting outside in the cold for numerous hours to DailyMail.com. She said the mayor needs to make drive thru vaccinations more widespread
Some people were seen filling out paperwork as they waited for the jab on Monday morning in Jacksonville
Arizona, with the highest COVID-19 diagnosis rate in the US, planned to dispense shots beginning Monday in a drive-thru, round-the-clock operation at the suburban Phoenix stadium that is home to the NFL's Arizona Cardinals. Shots are being offered to people 75 and older, teachers, police and firefighters.
In Texas, Dallas County was scheduled to open a vaccine megasite on Monday on the grounds where the Texas State Fair is held.
In Houston, nearly 4,000 people were vaccinated Saturday at Minute Maid Park, the home of baseball´s Houston Astros.
Detroit is turning its TCF convention center into a vaccination center starting Wednesday, with officials planning to schedule 20,000 appointments over the next month for people 75 and older.
Police officers and bus drivers can also start to get vaccinated there at the end of the week.
'We are going to keep ramping up our vaccinations to the maximum extent the supply allows,' Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said.
The slow first stage of the campaign has been blamed in part on inadequate funding and guidance from Washington and a multitude of logistical hurdles at the state and local level that have caused confusion and disorganization.
As Colorado moves into its next phase of vaccine distribution for people 70 and older, frustration is growing among senior citizens who say they have received little or no direct communication from local public health officials and don´t even know where to start the process.
Joyce Ballotti, 85, and her 94-year-old husband went to a vaccination site in Pueblo, Colorado, on Monday that was supposed to begin at 9am But around 8.45am, they were turned away because it had run out of vaccines.
'When we saw that exit locked, we said, "Uh-oh, the city has screwed up again,"' Ballotti said.
A police officer managing traffic waved them away, and they received no guidance on other vaccine sites. Ballotti said she is angry, disappointed and frustrated about the process.
'I'm about ready to get it not at all,' she said, noting that the couple's son had taken off from work to drive them and now they have to try to do it all over again another day. 'I can't ask my son to spend his time on fruitless errands.'
The US is entering the second month of the biggest vaccination drive in history with a major expansion of the campaign, opening football stadiums, major league ballparks, fairgrounds and convention centers to inoculate a larger and more diverse pool of people
After a frustratingly slow rollout involving primarily health care workers and nursing home residents, states are moving on to the next phase before the first one is complete, making shots available to such groups as senior citizens, teachers, bus drivers, police officers and firefighters. More than 8 million people have received the first dose of the vaccination in the US
In California, one of the deadliest hot spots in the US, authorities opened a drive-thru 'vaccination superstation' Monday in a parking lot near the ballpark where the San Diego Padres play.
The goal is to inoculate 5,000 health care workers a day. They will remain in their vehicles while they are given a shot, and will be asked to stay there for 15 minutes so they can watched for any reactions.
California hit another gloomy milestone, surpassing a death toll of 30,000. It took the state six months to record its first 10,000 deaths but barely a month to go from 20,000 to 30,000.
Over the weekend, California reported a two-day record of 1,163 deaths. Hospitalizations also have exploded, and many medical centers are being pushed to the breaking point.
About 584,000 doses have been administered in California, or about 1.5 per cent of the population.
In New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak last spring, two 24-7 sites opened and several more are expected to be up and running over the next two weeks.
Appointments for the midnight-to-4-am shift on Tuesday were snapped up quickly, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. As of Monday, the state began offering vaccines to people over 75, teachers, transit workers and other front-line workers.
'So you can see New Yorkers are going to take advantage of this,' the mayor said. 'The city that never sleeps, people are immediately grabbing those opportunities to get vaccinated.'
Saad Omer, director of the Yale Institute for Global Health, said it is reasonable to speed things up and move on to the next group of people as long as health workers and nursing home residents continue being given shots at the same time.
'Our country should be able to walk and chew gum when comes to its immunization program,' he said.