Florida eliminated residency requirement for coronavirus vaccine

Vaccination without residency requirements has started in Florida. (Photo: EFE / EPA / CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH)

Those over 16 can to get vaccinated Florida since Friday without proof of address, as announced by the health authorities. This measure paves the way for the vaccination of undocumented people and, in fact, facilitates “vaccine tourism” in the southern state of the United States, since tourists will also be able to access doses against the coronavirus.

In January, when many cases of tourists traveling specially for vaccination began to appear, Florida imposed residency test as a requirement to receive the injection.

Measurement undocumented workers affected, who often don’t have driver’s licenses, contracts or invoices in their name, then lawmakers and campaigners have called on Gov. Ron DeSantis to remove that hurdle.

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Now that more than six million people have been vaccinated in Florida and the demand is much lower, the health ministry overturned its January decision.

The vaccine will be available to anyone “resident or present in Florida for the purpose of providing goods or services for the benefit of residents and visitors to the state,” the Florida Department of Health said Thursday evening.

This allow undocumented people to access the vaccine simply by verbally stating that they live in the state or provide a service here.

Miami-Dade Democratic Mayor Daniella Levine-Cava celebrated the turnaround on Friday. “It’s a victory for all of us who call our community home,” he wrote on Twitter.

In fact, the move will also facilitate the so-called “vaccine tourism” that the hurdles imposed in January were supposed to contain and which generated a backlash from the mayor of North Miami Beach.

“Yes, you can come here to North Miami Beach. We have a large population of international people who were able to come with their passports and a local address here, ”said Anthony DeFillipo, the city’s mayor, in a Facebook Live with interviewers in Colombia.

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His apparent invitation to all Latin Americans to travel for vaccinations was circulated enthusiastically in the region’s media and on Monday the city had to back down “because of the misunderstanding,” according to the local newspaper. Miami herald.

“The benefits of opening vaccination for undocumented Floridians far outweigh (the need) to limit it to avoid tourists,” said Guadalupe de la Cruz, of the American Committee’s social justice NGO. friends from Florida.

“It is the least that Florida can do to include and protect the well-being of members of its community,” he said.

Previous restrictions did not prevent tourists from coming to Florida to get vaccinated. Since January, Wealthy Latin Americans bypassed the residency requirement.

They did this by showing bank accounts with an address in the United States or temporary leases, from Airbnb for example, which were later canceled.

For example, María, an Argentinian interior designer who traveled to Miami to be vaccinated last weekend, told the news agency AFP that he made the trip because in his country “there are not even vaccine plans” for people his age, 46 years old.

“I had this temporary six-month contract with my name, nothing very formal, the boy (at the vaccination center) looked at it and found that my name matched that of my passport and that was itShe said, asking not to be identified by her last name.

From now on, without having to present residence documents, “it will be much easier,” Maria said on Friday. She also admitted that she knew a lot of people in Argentina who were making the same decision as her.

“Lots of people travel to Miami to do this. Now, I think they will go more, even if the tickets are quite expensive, ”continued the woman, already back in Buenos Aires with a single dose of Pfizer.