Federal officials are opening a mass COVID-19 vaccination site at the Tampa Greyhound Track, one of four such locations to open in Florida.
In recent days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been working with states to open several large-scale vaccination sites around the country in hopes of getting more shots into more arms more quickly.
Florida will have four sites, Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday: the one in Tampa, at 755 E Waters Ave.; at Valencia College’s West Campus in Orlando; at the Gateway Mall in Orlando; and at Miami-Dade Community College’s North Campus in Miami.
Each site will open March 3 and will operate seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., according to a release from the governor’s office. Each site is expected to administer 2,000 shots per day. In addition, every site will have two smaller, mobile satellite sites that each will conduct 500 vaccinations a day in underserved areas, according to the release.
The supply of vaccines to these sites will come from the federal government and be additional to the doses the federal government allocates to Florida each week.
The federal government is working with the state to open the sites. People wanting to get a vaccination through these sites should use the state’s pre-registration system, myvaccine.fl.gov, or call the designated county phone number.
DeSantis initially called President Joe Biden’s idea of using FEMA to build vaccination clinics across the U.S. a “big mistake.” But he later changed course and said he would help with the sites to get more vaccine doses into the state.
The sites will primarily use federal staff, according to a news release from the White House. It said the sites were chosen using a number of factors, including each area’s score on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Social Vulnerability Index.
The White House said Hillsborough County was identified as one of nine counties in the state with significantly underserved or marginalized populations. It said the mobile vaccination clinics could also help reach part of the Seminole Tribe of Florida population and serve nearby counties’ vulnerable communities, specifically pointing to cities such as Lake Alfred, Lakeland and Bowling Green.
The governor’s office reached out Wednesday to Tampa Bay Downs, which owns the Tampa Greyhound Track, said Greg Gelyon, the company’s vice president of finance.
“When they ask for something this serious, to help out, we can’t say no,” Gelyon said. He said the facility’s east and west parking lots have been leased for the effort but added he doesn’t have further details about how exactly the site will be used.
Greyhound racing is no longer allowed in Florida, but the Tampa Greyhound Track, which also goes by TGT Poker & Racebook, still offers poker and simulcast racing wagering, according to a spokeswoman.
As of Thursday, nearly 2.6 million Floridians had received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to state data. In Hillsborough County, 121,000 people had received at least one dose, while 118,000 people in Pinellas County had.
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