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Shifting to new strategy, Orange County Convention Center vaccine site closing in May

Officials plan to operate 2 sites in different parts of the county

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Central Florida’s busiest coronavirus vaccine site at the Orange County Convention Center will stop operating at the end of May, county officials announced Thursday.

The convention center site has been vaccinating thousands per day since the end of December and currently is giving out more than 4,000 shots a day. The site has now vaccinated more than 200,000 people.

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The site as it’s currently operating will offer the last first dose of the Pfizer vaccine on May 5, said Dr. Raul Pino, Orange County health officer with the Florida Department of Health.

“We are working on an exit strategy from the convention center, but I want our community to know that this is such an important asset in our community to have,” Pino said, thanking the employees at OCCC and those working the vaccine site.

Under the current timeline, the OCCC vaccination site as it operates now will close at the end of May.

Pino said the health department is working with the county to adapt its vaccine strategy for its community to more effectively vaccinate residents with the same volume of shots per day.

“It would be best in this phase of vaccines to have two sites in two different locations of the county that are doing about 2,000 each,” Pino said, adding, “We are just moving to a different strategy.”

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