Happy New Year 2021!! After so many months of being hunkered down and trying our best to follow strict health protocols, the arrival of vaccines to fight COVID-19 has been welcome news. Now, we must address the challenges presented by a mass rollout of the vaccines.
We have seen the initial challenges faced by the state health department and our hospital systems – limited supplies of the vaccine and overwhelmed phone lines and web sites as so many sought appointments. People have a right to expect better results.
Although the distribution of the vaccine is being overseen by the state, the city of Fort Lauderdale has stepped forward to help find solutions. I have personally talked to the governor’s top aides about how to quickly improve the situation.
As a result, we have converted the COVID-19 testing site at Holiday Park to handle vaccinations that is being run by the state’s Health Department. We also have opened a mega-site for vaccinations at Lockhart Park’s soccer stadium parking lot. It is being operated by the Broward Health hospital district in conjunction with the state Division of Emergency Management.
I’m proud of the level of cooperation that has led to these sites opening. Wilton Manors, Oakland Park and Pompano Beach have worked with our city to provide needed EMS staffing at Holiday Park. And I offer my sincere thanks to the Inter Miami soccer team for agreeing to make the Lockhart facilities available and to the Broward Health for agreeing to take on the task of management.
Lockhart is a great location given its proximity to Interstate 95 and the large area to service a high volume of people. But still it took a lot of coordination to get the site up and running quickly. In a matter of a week, we had giant tents set up, generators trucked in, supplies delivered and medical staff put in place.
The Health Department is finalizing an improved way to take a high volume of appointments, and we will have more details on that shortly. To receive a vaccine at Lockhart, register at BrowardHealth.org and complete the vaccination request form. Broward Health schedulers will respond to requests in the order that they are received.
Broward Health initially plans to vaccinate 500 people a day and hopes to eventually scale up the operation to handle more than 1,000 daily. We are continuing to look for other ways to expand vaccination in our community as supplies become available.
We have been doing more than that as well. Please join me in thanking Tavistock, the owner of Pier 66, and Informa, the producer of the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, for stepping forward to provide a location in Fort Lauderdale for the state to train doctors and nurses in how to properly administer the vaccine.
All of us want to see our vulnerable elderly population and our frontline first-responders vaccinated as quickly as possible so we are doing our best to ensure that happens.
This is a monumental task both locally and nationally. And, now is the time to set aside petty politics and partisan rancor and focus on the task at hand. In the 10 months since we began our response to this pandemic, more than 1.5 million Floridians have tested positive for COVID-19 and more than 23,000 have lost their lives.
It is only through mass vaccination that we can overcome this disease, return our lives to normalcy and begin the road to economic recovery.
Please remember that Lockhart and Holiday Park are not your only options for vaccines.
The health department operates five other sites in the vicinity in addition to Holiday Park and takes appointments at www.BrowardCovidVaccine.com. The following hospitals are also vaccinating but have no open appointments at this time: Memorial Health, Holy Cross and Cleveland Clinic.
You are not even limited to locations in Broward County. Feel free to consider options in Miami, such as Jackson Health and Mount Sinai, or in Palm Beach.
And the state and local governments continue to look for other ways to expand vaccination. The state has begun targeting vaccinations to large senior communities in Broward as well as places of worship with large senior congregations. We need to find more ways like this to get vaccinations to seniors who are not able schedule appointments online or who don’t drive.
During the coming months, though, we cannot drop our guard because the virus remains ever present among us. We cannot become complacent about following the health safety protocols regarding social distancing and face masks.
Unfortunately, we have seen a growing number of people and business disregarding the measures that remain in place to spread the spread of the virus. Our Code Enforcement staff has remained diligent, though, in recent weeks and continues to cite violators, going so far as to issue $15,000 fines for egregious offenses.
Please continue to take the necessary protections so we do not overwhelm our hospitals and have more needless deaths in the coming months.
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on us as a society, and it’s important that we remember the loss of life that has occurred.
To that extent, the city of Fort Lauderdale joined in one of the incoming Biden administration’s inaugural events. They illuminated the reflecting pool next to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 19 to memorialize those lost to COVID and have asked cities around the country to participate with local events.
We illuminated the beach parking garage that evening in light amber and asked local churches to ring their bells or undertake similar sentiments at the same time.
The response to this from our clergy was impressive. Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Calvary Chapel, St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, Sunshine Cathedral, All Saints Episcopal Church, the United Church of Christ and the Church by the Sea are just among some in our faith community who participated.
As we move to a time when COVID-19 is no longer a danger, we must look at ways to reinvigorate our economy.
Fort Lauderdale is among local governments pushing hard to attract a wide variety of companies to the area, including from the tech and financial services industries. We were delighted recently to learn that Goldman Sachs is exploring a move of their headquarters from New York to South Florida. I recently met with the mayors of Miami and Boca Raton and the vice mayor of Broward County to discuss ways to partner in promoting the area to these industries.
It starts with Florida’s low-tax climate and its famous year-around warm weather. But it doesn’t stop there. Fort Lauderdale has created a dynamic downtown with a wealth of housing, dining and entertainment options close to available workspace. We have one of the largest and most diverse labor forces in the state. We have access to both domestic and international markets through our convenient airport. We have a tremendous set of universities to collaborate with and pull up-and-coming talent from.
We are already home to more than 150 corporate headquarters, including Microsoft, Citrix, Hotwire, Shipmunk and Kemet. And, we have local governments that understand the importance of economic development and business recruitment and are willing to be good partners so we can diversify our economy.
Let’s look forward to putting COVID behind us and building a better economy in 2021.
Yours,
Dean
