ORLANDO, Fla. — New opportunities open up this week to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Central Florida.

The Orange County Mobile Vaccination program is now in a different location — at the Silver Star Park Gymnasium in Orlando — with a different setup.


What You Need To Know

  • Orange County relocates mobile COVID vaccination site to Silver Star Park Gymnasium

  • The site had been at Barber Park last week

  • Pfizer is filling the gap while Johnson & Johnson shots are on hold

  • Appointments are required until Friday, when walk-ups are welcome

Inside the gym, patients are lining up to get their vaccine dose in the back of the room. Chairs are frequently cleaned and spaced out for that 15-minute wait period after the dose.

Site supervisor Blain Mustain said 4,000 people were vaccinated at the Barber Park mobile site last week.

"Busy from the time we started, until the time we ended 9 (a.m.)-7 (p.m.), we were busy all day," he said.

That site was inundated with walk-up appointments, so this time around they're switching it up.

"This week, we are 9 to 7 p.m. appointments, and then Friday will be walk-ups all day," Mustain said.

The new goal is 1,100 vaccines administered per day all week.

With plenty of Pfizer vaccines available, some sites across the county, like Valencia College West, are waiting to see when Johnson & Johnson's vaccine pause will end. 

The resumption of the J&J vaccines are awaiting a Food and Drug Administration review of rare blood clots in six women who received Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci expects a decision by Friday, saying the vaccine could come back soon.

"I would imagine that what we will see is that it would come back, that it would come back in some sort of either warning of restriction," he said.

The county is still developing plans to expand the mobile site program after this week's Silver Star Park event.

To make an appointment, log on to ocfl.net/vaccine.