Officials from the Miami-Dade Corrections Department and local politicians announced Thursday that 100 current inmates in the jails were vaccinated against COVID-19 in an effort to contain the spread of the virus.
Judicial officials said the plans had been in the works for about a year and they're satisfied the efforts are now paying off with them getting vaccines to inoculate the inmate population.
"They too deserve an opportunity to be part of the vaccination rollout," said Commissioner Kionne McGhee. "Doing it to say we can do it and count numbers, this is a population that has been deemed lost and left out.”
Officials say those being vaccinated are most vulnerable because they have underlying health conditions. They say this is just the beginning of their vaccination efforts in all of the county jails.
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“We’re here today in partnership with was not only Commissioner McGhee, who reached out to us and had this great idea and opportunity for us to vaccinate a number of our high-risk inmates here at the jail," said Daniel Junior of the Miami-Dade Corrections Department.
Their goal is to have all the inmates and jail staff vaccinated as soon as it's possible.
