Florida gearing up to distribute coronavirus vaccine once one is approved

Jacksonville FL — We’ve seen promising news on a coronavirus vaccine front lately, and in an update Thursday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the state is working to get a vaccine distributed across the state as quickly as possible once one is approved. The governor says, after a vaccine is approved by the FDA, he’s hopeful that hospitals in the state will start to receive them within three to six weeks.

“Our goal is to make all safe and effective covid vaccines available to Floridians who want them, but the state will not mandate that Floridians take these vaccines, that’s gonna be the choice of each and every Floridian.” DeSantis says.

He says around the same time that hospitals start to receive doses, big pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens will also get vaccines so they can be distributed at long-term care facilities.

We’ve reported this month when both Pfizer and Moderna reported 90% or more effectiveness with the vaccines they are developing. DeSantis says the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at -70 degrees and the state has identified U.F. Health Jacksonville as one of five hospitals in the state with the capabilities of storing and giving out the Pfizer vaccine.

DeSantis says at this time, the best estimate from the federal government, is by the end of the month roughly 40 million doses of the two vaccines will be available for Americans. Since the vaccines are administered with two shots that means about 20 million people would be able to get vaccinated.

Cox Media Group