State-run health departments will continue inoculating seniors until more COVID-19 vaccine doses become available. Gov. Ron DeSantis says when demand lessens and supply becomes more available, other groups like teachers can hopefully gain access to the vaccine.
Nearly 23,000 Florida residents have died from the coronavirus. People age 65 and older make up nearly 19,000 of those deaths.
"And so, by focusing on 65 and plus, that is the best thing we can do to reduce both morbidity and mortality from the coronavirus," DeSantis says.
He is under increasing pressure to provide vaccines to essential workers, like teachers. DeSantis says if the COVID-19 vaccine from the company Johnson & Johnson gets approved for emergency use, officials could give those doses to the general population.
"That is a one-dose vaccine, you don't got to put it in the freezer like you do the Pfizer or even the Moderna, and that would be widely, I think distributed. So, that would be the easiest thing for a lot of people in the workforce," DeSantis says.
Florida is scheduled to get 250,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses this week, but DeSantis says the state will burn through those fast.
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