MDC Announces Pop-Up Vaccination Sites, Remains Tight-Lipped About Fully In-Person Classes

Miami Dade College announced Friday that they will have pop-up vaccination sites at their campuses during the first week of fall semester, which starts on Aug. 23.

However, they remain tight-lipped on whether classes will be fully in-person. The College is currently offering courses in various modalities—MDC-Live, MDC Online, Blended and in-person.

“Any additional decisions will be made based on current conditions, at the appropriate time, and communicated to the college community, as needed,” the College’s Director of Communications Juan Mendieta told The Reporter via email on Friday.

This is the second time the College has hosted pop-up vaccination sites. They hosted pop-up sites in early May at Hialeah, Homestead, Kendall and Wolfson Campuses.

Here are the new pop-up vaccination sites that are in partnership with Miami-Dade County and the Florida Department of Health:

• Aug. 23: Homestead (west parking lot) and Kendall (parking lot 3) Campuses.
• Aug. 24: Homestead (west parking lot), Wolfson (breezeway) and Padrón (Room 3102) Campuses.
• Aug. 25: Medical Campus (Room 3102) and Carrie P. Meek Entrepreneurial Education Center (parking lot behind the building).
• Aug. 26: Hialeah (lot 5) and West (Room 1109) Campuses

All venues will operate from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and be available to students, faculty and the general public, except for the one at Homestead Campus on Aug. 24, which will close at 2 p.m. 

Appointments are not needed but attendees must bring a document that proves their identity and Florida residency, such as a driver’s license or Florida ID.

The sites will administer the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Second doses will be scheduled three weeks after the first shot is administered.

In addition, the vaccination site next to North Campus will remain open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Miami Dade College is currently in Phase 2 of its Outbreak Recovery Plan. At the end of June, there was hope that the College might move into Phase 3 allowing for the full return of face-to-face classes.

The College started hosting various in-person events including open houses and ceremonies like the gathering of the inaugural class of the Rising Black Scholars Program, the Alumni Hall of Fame, and the White Coat pinning graduation. 

On June 21, the College stopped requiring temperature checks to enter school grounds and nine days later the entrances to all eight MDC campuses were reopened to the public. Tables that had been taped together to prevent people from gathering were reintroduced to the campuses.

However, in recent weeks the College has scaled back due to the rapid rise in Delta variant cases. 

Convocation, a welcome back ceremony for faculty and staff in the fall, and The Honors College orientation were both scheduled to be in-person but were forced to schedule virtual events.

On campus, masks and vaccines are not mandatory but highly encouraged. Enhanced cleaning protocols are conducted daily in classrooms, libraries and high-touch areas, physical barriers like sneeze guards and plexiglass are in place and stands with hand sanitizer and disinfectant wipes are available.

With just over a week to go before fall classes start, it’s still unclear if the term will start fully in-person.

According to the College’s Recovery Plan, in order to move to Phase 3, Miami-Dade County has to report a positivity rate of less than three percent for 14 consecutive days.

The county’s most recent Daily Dashboard Report published on Aug.12, reported a seven-day positivity rate of 14.20 percent.

“There are many students that would like to come back to campus, for sure mostly the second years,” said Sara De La Cruz, the Padrón Campus Student Government Association vice president. “First years want to come in-person but aren’t sure how everything is going to work out, so they’re a bit confused.”