Florians aged 18 and over will be able to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from 5 April

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday announced the next eligibility guidelines for COVID-19 vaccines in Florida.

The governor says all Floridians 40 and older will be able to get the vaccine next Monday, March 29, and those over the age of 18 will be eligible the following Monday, April 5.

In a video ad, DeSantis confirmed that more than 3.2 million seniors have received the vaccine so far at Sunshine State.

“We have now vaccinated more than 70% of the approximately 4.4 million elderly people living in the state,” he said. “We have also made great progress in those aged 60-64 and in those aged 50 and over, and we are ready to take that step.”

Anyone wishing to receive the vaccine is recommended to register in advance at www.myvaccine.fl.gov.

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Once pre-registered, they will be contacted when the vaccine is available in their area.

Floridians can also call their county’s vaccine pre-registration phone number. Click here to find your area number.

“Vaccines are also available at 150 CVS locations, 125 Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club locations, more than 70 Winn Dixie locations, soon more than 600 Walgreens pharmacies and all 730 Publix pharmacies across the state.” in a press release from the governor’s office.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava congratulated the governor for lowering the age requirement before the May 1 deadline set by the Biden Administration.

“I congratulate the governor for following the leadership of communities like Miami-Dade that moved forward with a solid timeline to expand vaccination eligibility, given the greater supply provided by federal sites,” the mayor said in a statement . “Miami-Dade has now vaccinated 70% of those over 65 and more than 650,000 of our residents have received at least a first dose. We are now stepping up a more aggressive public engagement campaign across the community in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole. to ensure that, with the extended requirement for all adults on April 5, all residents know they can get a chance.And starting this Monday, all residents over the age of 40 can get a vaccine at any Miami-Dade vaccination site.

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“This is our clearest path to return to normalcy and leave this pandemic behind, and I will work with our community to ensure that all of our residents are vaccinated. Shoot your shot, Miami-Dade.”

Demand for vaccine throughout South Florida remains high.

On Wednesday, the FEMA-funded site on the north campus of Miami Dade College ran out of the 500 doses allocated for recipients for the first time.

“We had a lady who showed up here. He had brought his mother and was crying because he could not vaccinate her. It’s heartbreaking, “said Bruce Roberts, the site’s leader.

But two hours after running out, an additional shipment of vaccines arrived to save the day.

“So we’re going to work with the health department and say, ‘Hey, let us know if we have more on CVS, a Publix, or somewhere that hasn’t met that mark,'” and so we said, ” we can do it, we can receive them and we can actually take them out, and that’s really what happened, ”Roberts said.

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In the end, the staff ended up administering 2,000 first doses. It is four times the initial supply.

But while staff members waited for this additional shipment, they withdrew 50 to 100 people who showed up for the first dose.

A man, identified only as Victor, was told to try again on Thursday morning, so he returned at 6:30 a.m. to secure the spot and this time succeeded.

“It was good,” he said. “Today we had a chance to get it.”

The site manager said he is not sure if they could get an additional shipment on Thursday, so for now, there will only be 500 first doses available through April 7th.

There are plenty of second doses to go through.

Related links

List of cases by city in South Florida

Find a COVID-19 test site near you

Announcements

Capacity and availability of the hospital bed

Coronavirus cases in Florida schools

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