Community advocates in South Florida are calling for the state to eliminate residency requirements to get a COVID-19 vaccine.
People who want to get the vaccine in Florida need to show proof they live in the state: a state-issued ID or a document showing their name and a Florida address.
Aidil Oscariz, a community engagement and policy consultant with the advocacy group Catalyst Miami, said the residency requirement excludes marginalized people from getting vaccinated.
"A lot of people want to get vaccinated and have been unable to due to this requirement and not being able to produce those documents," Oscariz said.
Oscariz said many migrant workers and out-of-status or undocumented immigrants don’t have bank accounts, and people throughout the state live in homes where their names are not on a lease or on a utility bill.
"These are a lot of the same people that have been doing frontline work, that are essential workers, that have been exposing themselves to the coronavirus since the beginning," Oscariz said.
Oscariz is calling for the proof of residency requirement to be eliminated.
"This is a larger public health issue," Oscariz said. "We want as many people as possible to get vaccinated so that we can all be safe, and our economy can recover."
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