Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
DeSantis: Counties to give vaccines to elderly
Floridians 65 and older will be able to receive COVID-19 vaccines through county health departments as early as Monday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Wednesday.
DeSantis also i ssued an executive order placing elderly residents as the first priority to receive the vaccine.
“For us in Florida, we’re making clear the executive order... is to vaccinate people 65 and up,” Gov. DeSantis told reporters during a vaccination demonstration at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola. He added that elderly residents, who face a greater risk of death from COVID19, should take precedence over younger essential workers.
The order requires vaccine providers in the first phase to administer vaccines only to long-term care facility residents and staffers; those 65 and older; and health care staffers with direct contact with patients.
His decision differs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory, which recommended the vaccine is distributed to essential workers and older populations at the same time.
DeSantis said the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are already in most hospitals, and county health departments could start inoculating as early as Monday. But he also cautioned that health departments would have a limited supply on hand.
“We’re going to continue to receive hundreds of thousands of doses for the vaccine,” he said.
There have been 68,133 people vaccinated with the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Florida through Tuesday, according to state data. Those who receive the first dose must get a second booster shot about 21 days later to be fully immunized.
Meanwhile, the economic toll of the pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the state, and thousands of jobless Floridians face the end of federal unemployment benefits on Saturday or even eviction by Jan. 1 when the CDC eviction moratorium expires.
When asked, DeSantis didn’t say whether he thought President Donald Trump should veto the coronavirus relief package passed by Congress this week, but he said it was cobbled together at the last minute after several months of waiting, and included many provisions unrelated to the pandemic.
“They’re sending money to Pakistan, they’re spending money on all these other things — this is a situation where our country has had problems, let’s address those problems,” DeSantis said.
Foreign aid to many countries was included in the more than 5,000-page bill because pandemic relief was paired with the federal budget bill. Much of the funding for other countries was in President Trump’s requested budget. Trump’s negotiators also recommended combining the relief bill with the budget bill.
But Trump released a video Tuesday evening decrying the coronavirus relief package, saying the $600 in direct payments wasn’t enough, suggesting $2,000 instead for individuals. The move throws into doubt whether he would veto the measure or whether Congress would have enough time to renegotiate a bill to get the money to people in need.
Still, DeSantis said Florida will be ready no matter what Trump decides.
“We’ll make the best out of it in Florida no matter what happens,” DeSantis said. “We’re happy to say we’ve been really responsible with our budget situation. We’re going to be able, I think, to continue a lot of the progress we’ve made.”