“The state is not controlling hospitals,” Florida Governor Ron DeSantis told CNN’s Rosa Flores on Monday. “These guys are much more adept at providing health care than a state government could ever be.”
Although Florida has a structure for deciding which priority groups to vaccinate, it is up to health facilities to organize the distribution of vaccines to patients. Some hospitals abandoned the registration system and instead adopted a first-come-first-look strategy to administer vaccines distributed across the state, DeSantis said. Demand has been high among the elderly, who are among those most at risk of serious illnesses caused by Covid-19.
And the elderly make up a significant proportion of the state’s population: More than 3.2 million of Florida’s 18.8 million inhabitants are over 65, according to the 2010 US Census.
Director of the Florida Emergency Management Division, Jared Moskowitz said in a question and answer session on Wednesday that the state is working to address the variable naming system between counties, especially in planning to serve older people who cannot. wait in long lines, according to CNN’s WFTV affiliate.
As of Tuesday, about 19 million doses have been distributed nationwide and 4.8 million administered, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Florida is among the 12 states that have administered less than a quarter of their vaccines. More than 329,000 people were vaccinated in the state as of Tuesday, the state said.
Dramatic scenes
The random launch led to dramatic scenes in the state. On Monday night, Daytona Beach officials announced that the first 1,000 people in line for Tuesday’s vaccinations would be allowed to park and wait overnight at Daytona Stadium to ease traffic and block the roads.
The announcement was made after the line began to form 12 hours before the date set for the first shot on Tuesday, according to WFTV. As of Monday morning, all 1,000 people allocated to receive the vaccine for the day were at the location at 6:30 am, half an hour before the scheduled opening time, the post said.
“Oh, I want this vaccine more than anything,” Daytona Beach Shores resident Deborah Boyd told WFTV. “Honestly, I would have come in by helicopter, parachute to get this vaccine and I’m willing to wait as long as I need to. I can’t live like this anymore.”
The facility reached capacity more than two hours before it was opened for vaccines, the city announced on Facebook.
In South Florida, Broward Health said last week that all of its appointments were scheduled until February.
While acknowledging that the vaccine launch was not perfect, DeSantis said Florida’s is the “best approach”.
Most states are vaccinating only health professionals and long-term patients first, but Florida has expanded the scope of its doses.
“If you have a 73-year-old father, a 73-year-old grandfather, in the vast majority of states in this country, they cannot be vaccinated. We don’t believe this is right. We believe that the elderly should be placed first,” he said. he.
DeSantis warned hospitals to increase their administration fee, adding that some facilities are doing better than others.
“We want you to use the vaccine. If you are not using it, we will make sure that the additional quotas will be reduced and then expanded in places where they are making good use of it,” said DeSantis.
To help meet the demand for vaccination for the elderly, Florida has announced the opening of new Covid-19 vaccination sites. Hardrock Stadium in Miami Gardens will serve 1,000 people a day, and Publix Supermarkets will use 15,000 doses of the Modern vaccine to launch a pilot vaccine program in 22 stores starting on Friday, DeSantis announced.
CNN’s Denise Royal and Rosa Flores contributed to this report.
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