Florida is approaching 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations for seniors 65 and older, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
At a news conference in Key Largo, DeSantis said the state has given the vaccine to about 20% of the state's 4.5 million seniors, but he added that more could be administered if the state could get more doses. State officials acknowledged that it could take a few more days to reach the 1 million mark.
"We're gonna keep putting seniors first," DeSantis said. "Get us more vaccines, we will use it, we will use it well."
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DeSantis said the state is expecting to receive another 266,000 first doses of the vaccine next week, but said the state is going at a pace faster than what's coming in.
“We’re in a situation where we did over 400,000 shots last week Monday through Sunday. This week, we probably aren’t going to reach that because we aren’t getting enough vaccine," DeSantis said. "We have places that can do more and we want them to do more. And if we get more than 266,000 doses, we will be able to do a lot more very quickly."
Officials also addressed concerns over a new hurdle to vaccine access. The Florida surgeon general announced Thursday that people will have to provide proof of full or part-time residency to get the injection in the state.
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"We had heard a lot of individuals that were coming in from other countries, other states, sort of getting ahead of Florida residents in line for vaccine appointments," Florida Lt. Gov Jeanette Nunez said. "Even though 97% of our vaccine is going to Florida residents, we want to make sure that we eliminate as much possibility for others to quote-unquote game the system."
