In Jacksonville, 6 more in Florida offer vaccines against COVID-19 Sunday in collaboration with churches

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Seven locations in Florida, including one in Jacksonville, offered vaccines against COVID-19 on Sunday in collaboration with places of worship, Governor Ron DeSantis announced.

“We really believe that making sure these vaccines are in every segment of communities is important and we believe that working with our places of worship is one way to do that,” DeSantis said at a news conference Sunday morning. and Lynn Haven. “We started doing one in Pensacola last Saturday. He was very successful. “

On Sunday at 9 a.m., St. Matthew’s Baptist Church in the Moncrief neighborhood of Jacksonville began administering 500 preselected doses of the vaccine to people 65 and older. Rovenia Brooks and her husband, Earl, received the first dose of the vaccine there and said they had appointments to receive the second dose in a few weeks.

“Our church – Mt. Sinai (Missionary Baptist Church), Pastor (RL) Gundy: They called us at home, asked us if we wanted to do the shooting, “Rovenia Brooks said.” At first, I was nervous, so I said no. Then the next day, Friday, I called him and called back at the church and he told me he was calling the office of Audrey Gibson (state senator) and the secretary should take your name and put it on the roll of Mt. Sinai, so I did. “

Donald Foy also told News4Jax how he had access to the shot.

“The appointment was actually made, a pastor friend, he went through the process of it and we got it through Senator Audrey Gibson’s office,” Foy said. “That went through the process and I was able to get in and get it.”

In addition to Jacksonville and Lynn Haven, DeSantis said, Sunday’s operating locations were in Tallahassee, Hollywood, Fort Lauderdale, St. Lucia and Tampa. He said there were 50 different houses of worship, many of them predominantly African American churches, that participated.

“That’s a lot of teamwork,” he said. “It was the state that provided resources. It was the city and county working with all the churches to get it, and so they appointed each church a certain amount of times to receive, and then the pastor would work to be able to bring some elders for those individuals. times “.

The governor said the priority remains vaccination for the elderly.

“We put seniors first,” DeSantis said. “It simply came to our notice then. You will see that some of these large hospital systems are now beginning to eliminate many vaccines. We appreciate it. Also look at some of the county health departments that work in their communities to vaccinate seniors. Check out some of the state-sponsored tour sites, as well as some of the locations across the state of Florida. This is very convenient. And then our collaboration with Publix. “

As of Sunday, according to the Florida Department of Health, 558,326 people had been vaccinated in Florida, including 275,771 people over the age of 65.

Hopefully, according to DeSantis, the state plans to get about an additional 250,000 shots of the first dose next week. He added that he was asked if Florida could get more.

News4Jax contacted the Florida Department of Health to confirm who was in charge of booking appointments at St. Matthew’s Baptist Church, but had not received a response since Sunday afternoon.