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Palms West Monthly • April 2021 • Page 1
WELLINGTON • ROYAL PALM BEACH • WEST PALM BEACH • LOXAHATCHEE GROVES • THE ACREAGE
3rd Annual Palm Beach Jazz Festival comes to Kravis Center. PAGE 8
Volume 11, Number 4
PalmsWestMonthly.com
FREE • April 2021
Palm Beach County inching toward herd immunity with mass vaccination sites Palm PalmsBeach West Atlantic awards Hospital recognizes scholarships healthcare workers Palm Atlantic University PalmsBeach West Hospital marketed has awarded four of its seniors the one year anniversary of the school’s annual Women the first COVID hospitalization of by Distinction recognizingscholarships, all healthercare including Maria Landron workers that have been onofthe Royal Palm Beach. front lines of COVID.
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Photo by Palm West Monthly
Health Care District of Palm Beach County set up a mass vaccination site at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach. The 22,000-squarefoot, air-conditioned tent can inject up to 7,000 vaccines daily.
Dramaworks announces Clematis by‘Young Night Playwrights’ begins concert winners series in April
Palm Beach Dramaworks has Clematis by Night begins its announced its 10 winners weekly concert series at theof the Young Playwrights Meyer Amphitheatre10-Minute in West Play Contest. Each winning play Palm Beach. General admission will be a professional and VIPread podsbyare available. actor PAGEon6March 24.
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The Belle ofhelp Volunteers distributecomes Amherst PPE toto areaDramaworks PB non-profits
Palm Beach Clinics Can Help Dramaworks and United Way is producing joined forces The Belle with dozens of of area volunteers Amherst, based onrecently the life of to give away Emily Dickison. $350,000 worth of personal PAGE 7 protective equipment.
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By LEAH SANKLEY Palm West Monthly WEST PALM BEACH- In pursuit of herd immunity, mass vaccination sites capable of inoculating thousands per day are popping up all over the country. In February, the Health Care District of Palm Beach County opened three mega vaccination sites throughout Palm Beach County, deeming their vaccination efforts as a quest toward “community immunity.” Experts say that herd immunity is achieved when 70% or more of a population is protected through immunity. Following the successful rollout of the three mass vaccination sites in Palm Beach County, four federal mass vaccination centers came to Miami, Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville. The Health Care District of Palm Beach County was formed 30 years ago to be the health care safety net for Palm Beach County. It provides health care services such as school health, health coverage, hospital care, nursing care, primary care clinics, a trauma system, and now COVID vaccination at three locations in Palm Beach County. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recently announced that all age groups in the state
will likely be eligible to get vaccinated in April, while President Joe Biden called for vaccine eligibility for all adults nationwide by May 1. If the goal is to reach herd immunity in the coming months, mass vaccination clinics will be a crucial tool in inoculating enough Americans to achieve it as new variants of the virus proliferate. Run by the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, one of the largest vaccination sites in the region is located at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach. The 22,000-square-foot, air-conditioned tent can inject up to 7,000 vaccines in a single day. This facility came together in about a week. To date, the most vaccines the organization has administered in one day is 3,500. Currently, the overwhelming demand for vaccines is higher than the supply. By most accounts, the South Florida Fairgrounds mega-site runs like a welloiled machine. A breath of fresh air for older Floridians who’ve been waiting to get vaccinated for over a month. The HCD Facebook page is brimming with positive reviews from individuals who got their COVID shots at their walk-through locations, praising the efficiency of the process. Several people stated that the entire experience took less than 30 minutes,
including the mandatory 15-minute postjab wait time to check for side effects. “It may well be the smoothest operation I have ever seen, and I am a businessperson and have seen many businesses and production lines,” said Mark Gulko, a 69-year-old Palm Beach County resident. “The workers, volunteers or not, were all very pleasant, and seemed happy to be there. They are to be commended.” Gulko received his COVID vaccines at the South Florida Fairgrounds site in February. The staff and volunteers at the HCD learned as they went, and in doing so, have created an exemplary model for mass vaccination clinics. Scheduling and intake are done online before arriving at the site. Staffed kiosks are available to assist anyone unable to fill out their paperwork beforehand. The data is then automatically uploaded to the state database. The HCD mass vaccination sites operate under an assembly line model to reduce time at each step. There’s even a station of volunteers whose job is solely dedicated to opening band-aids. From the volunteers directing traffic to the parking lot to the pre-printed immunization cards that point people to the more than 20 injection stations inside the facility, the process is designed to be streamlined to VACCIATION SITES / PAGE 5
“We have an amazing team of people who are working with and for our agency that are making our vaccinating initiative possible.” -Dr Belma Andric, CMO for Health District of Palm Beach County