ORLANDO, Fla. — K-12 school employees, regardless of age, can now get vaccinated at the new FEMA-supported, large-scale coronavirus vaccination site in Orlando, Orange County Public Schools confirmed Thursday.

What You Need To Know

The site at the Valencia College West Campus, which takes both appointments and walk-ups, is a partnership between the state and the federal government.

The school district says Gov. Ron DeSantis confirmed Thursday morning that all K-12 school employees could get the vaccine, regardless of age, at Florida's federal distribution sites. They have to bring their school ID to do so. 

The move is a change from just earlier in the morning when DeSantis said that while pharmacies could follow a directive by the Biden administration to prioritize vaccinating school employees, but he believed other sites should continue vaccinating based on the state's current criteria, which includes vaccinating school workers, firefighters and law enforcement officers age 50 and older, health care workers, and anyone 65 and older.

Army officials in charge of the site said more than 1,200 vaccines had been administrated by noon Thursday. That's compared to only 500 around the same time Wednesday.

In addition to the main site, two satellite sites distribute about 500 vaccines a day in underserved areas. School employees can also get vaccinated there, OCPS says. On Thursday afternoon, both the St. Cloud FEMA satellite site at the St. Cloud Civic Center and the Englewood Neighborhood Center  site in Orlando had reached capacity and closed for the day.

The state handles registrations and vaccine eligibility, while the federal government handles the operational logistics and provides additional staffing, according to a FEMA spokesperson.

Around 1,800 people were vaccinated there Wednesday, according to on-site organizers. The site is capped at administering 2,000 doses daily.

“We keep the amount of vaccines on site to do what we need to do, with the full acknowledgment that there’s other sites in the state that need other vaccines available,” explained U.S. Army Lt. Col. Troy Fisher, the officer in charge of the site. “There’s a supply chain management piece that goes on at the state level to coordinate to make sure that we’re not wasting any vaccines.”

Individuals deemed by a physician to be extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 are also eligible to be vaccinated at the state’s federally supported vaccination sites, providing they present a Department of Health form signed by their doctor. That was a change announced Wednesday morning.

Valencia College is one of four federally-supported sites in Florida open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week.