Crowds flock to Barber Park for COVID-19 vaccine as new site opens

Appointments all booked up this week

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Beginning Monday, COVID-19 vaccines will be administered at Barber Park in Orange County. Officials said 1,000 doses a day of the Pfizer vaccine will be given away each day for five days.

The hours of the vaccine appointments are 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

If you are unable to schedule a time, the site will allow walk-ups the last two hours of each day, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.

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District 3 Commissioner Mayra Uribe said after receiving her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, she wants to be a role model for people in her community.

“I still worry about the cultural barrier, that language barrier, and so I get to be out there and say look, I’m speaking on behalf of myself now and my family. We’ve been vaccinated. My parents have been vaccinated,” Uribe said.

Christine Torres was able to get vaccinated Monday, saying the site was convenient for her and she hopes to see more residents take advantage of it.

“It doesn’t matter if you are high class, lower class, middle class -- everybody should get the vaccine,” she said.

Getting vaccinated means she’ll be able to see her grandson when he’s born in September.

Holly Keusch brought her 16-year-old daughter, Autumn Keusch, to the site Monday to receive the Pfizer formula.

“I’m relieved. I’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Autumn Keusch said.

Blain Mustain, the site supervisor with Orange County Health Services, said the site is already booked for the week.

“This is more convenient than going to the convention center or some of the FEMA sites that weren’t really in this neighborhood, this location,” Mustain said.

The pop-up vaccination site is just the latest for the county as it continues to increase its presence within the community with less access or information about a vaccine.

“Now we are going to have to get to those folks that are concerned about the vaccine, who don’t trust the vaccine, or who don’t know enough about the vaccine. And I think that’s a different stage that we will be moving into rather quickly,” Uribe said.

With young adults contributing to new COVID-19 cases in Orange County, Uribe also said that the site at Barber Park can help get shots into arms.

“The more we get young people vaccinated and we let them understand this is safe, this is a community, this is a global pandemic. This is not the flu,” Uribe said.

Appointments for the site can be made at ocfl.net/VaccineSites.


About the Authors:

Troy graduated from California State University Northridge with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication. He has reported on Mexican drug cartel violence on the El Paso/ Juarez border, nuclear testing facilities at the Idaho National Laboratory and severe Winter weather in Michigan.

Mark Lehman became a News 6 reporter in July 2014, but he's been a Central Florida journalist and part of the News 6 team for much longer. While most people are fast asleep in their bed, Mark starts his day overnight by searching for news on the streets of Central Florida.