Governor DeSantis will reduce the vaccination age to 60 next week

TALLAHASSEE, Florida. – Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced on Monday that the state will reduce the age for people to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from 65 to 60 next week.

“This will apply to all state pods, all pharmacies, all the different drive-thru locations that are being operated,” said DeSantis. “If you are over 60, you can apply and receive the vaccine.”

The age change takes effect on March 15.

The governor hinted that this would happen sometime in March and said that the age requirement will continue to fall as the number of vaccinations and supplies continues to increase, with each five-year group adding about 2 million people to the Florida to those eligible to take a chance.

The shift comes as demand for the elderly is decreasing and federal vaccination sites across the state continue to record low participation of eligible people.

“I really think that this is the right time to do that. We are starting to see demand drop, ”said DeSantis.

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The new federally administered site in Jacksonville and the two satellite sites have been able to vaccinate more than 15,000 people since they opened on Wednesday – on the same day, school officials, firefighters and police officers 50 years old or older, as well as people considered “medically vulnerable”, were able to start receiving shots on federal sites in Florida. But from day one through Sunday, the federal website at Gateway Mall and the two satellite sites administered only about 6,000 doses, with an average of less than 1,200 per day out of the 3,000 doses per day allocated.

DeSantis also said that the increase in supply also makes it easier to obtain schedules for obtaining a vaccine in supermarkets and pharmacies.

“Hopefully, next week we will receive another shipment from Johnson & Johnson, and I predict that what we just received will go away, probably in the next few days,” said DeSantis. “It seems to be very popular.”

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With the outline of how the vaccine will be launched in the future, DeSantis again chose to break with the recommendations of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The CDC recommends that essential frontline workers, such as grocery workers, manufacturing workers and public transport workers, should be among the first groups to receive the vaccine in Phase 1b. In Phase 1c, says the CDC, people aged 65 to 74, as well as other essential workers such as those in the food service industry and others who interact with a large number of people, should be vaccinated to limit spread in the community. .

Health officials say people like grocery workers should be vaccinated because they come into contact with the elderly and other vulnerable people every day.

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried said the state is seeing “chaos, confusion, frustration” and a “lack of clarity” during the vaccine’s launch.

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