Renzo Downey
Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida will receive 250,000 doses in its next COVID-19 vaccine shipment, split between Pfizer and Moderna’s formulas, but he’s asked the federal government to double that.
Through early Wednesday morning, Florida has offered a shot to at least 329,060 individuals, an average of about 14,300 per day. But in the latest seven days for which data is available, the state has upped that rate to more than 18,500 per day.
DeSantis projected that, of the 4.4 million Floridians aged 65 and older, at least 3 million will want the vaccine.
“If you look at the clip that it’s going now, we probably can use a lot more than that now that we have a lot of hospitals really ramping up and some other things going on,” he said in Bradenton on Thursday.
On Monday, the Governor warned that vaccine providers that are unable to distribute their allotted vaccine will have future allotments reduced. Those doses would instead go to sites that meet or exceed expectations.
“There’s nothing against it. There’s reasons why you may not be moving as fast, DeSantis said Thursday, “but if you have two weeks worth, we know we’re going to continue to get more, so let’s take some of that and send that to places that are going to be doing a good job and doing it quickly.”
The Governor has pointed to storage limitations of the Pfizer vaccine and the fact that the Moderna vaccine’s arrival coincided with Christmas as reasons for the slow initial rollout. But if Florida can vaccinate 50,000 people per day, with facilities open seven days a week, that would be a good rate.
“Here’s what I know. We’re going to do significantly more shots this week than last week throughout the state, and we will do — as long as we get more supply — we’ll do more shots next week than we’ve done last week. That’s the kind of momentum that I think we want to continue.”
In the first week of the vaccine rollout, health officials assembled teams to administer shots to residents and staff of 100 nursing homes in Broward and Pinellas County. Starting Thursday, they will join CVS and Walgreens in the effort to vaccinate in the rest of the state’s nearly 4,000 longterm care facilities.
As of Wednesday, vaccines are available through the first house of worship and community center in the Pensacola area after the state piloted the program in the city on Sunday. Through churches and synagogues, the Governor hopes that leaders people trust can help make the argument to get vaccinated.
And on Tuesday, DeSantis announced that the state had partnered with Publix to make 100 to 125 shots available per day at 22 pharmacies across Citrus, Hernando and Marion counties. Registration began Thursday, and pharmacists will administer the first doses Friday.
“It’s convenient, it’s in every community in the state of Florida and it makes it easier than having to potentially drive halfway across town to go to a site like a drive-thru site, which is great, but you can’t put a drive-thru site on every corner,” the Governor said Thursday.
