JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Starting next Wednesday, only second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be available at federally-supported sites in Jacksonville, including the Gateway Shopping Mall and its two satellite sites in Oceanway and Jacksonville Beach. AdThe end of first doses at Jacksonville FEMA sites are happening as Gov. Ron Desantis is publicly discussing waiving age requirements entirely for the COVID-19 vaccine. The federal locations in Jacksonville added more than 4,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses a day to the supply in Northeast Florida. The federally supported sites in Jacksonville have not yet experienced a single day where its daily allotment of doses was used.

After state emergency management officials acknowledged that school personnel were eligible to get vaccinated at federal clinics in Jacksonville, among other major cities, college professors and staff still weren’t clear if the order included them. While the state has yet to provide a clear answer to that question, college instructors were not turned away from a COVID-19 shot Friday at the federal vaccine clinic in Jacksonville. Unlike Florida’s executive order, the federal directive does not single out K-12 educators as the only group eligible to get the vaccine. Tara Jackson, a 50-year-old literacy specialist for the school district, said her colleagues were excited to learn there was one location where all school personnel could go to be vaccinated. During a news conference Friday, the governor said he has no intention of making other professions eligible for the vaccine in his order.