Some Publix to begin offering vaccines.

Publix stores will begin offering COVID-19 vaccinations this week in three Republican-dominated counties north and west of Orlando, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Tuesday in Ocala.

The announcement comes as frustration mounts among seniors trying to schedule shots, leading to swamped websites, long lines of cars, and controversial first-come, first-served policies in counties, including Lake and Lee.

Florida had a vaccination rate of 23% as of Tuesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 264,512 Floridians receiving shots out of 1.15 million doses distributed to the state. Nationally, about 28% of vaccines distributed have been successfully administered.

Florida’s death toll rose to 22,188 residents with 98 fatalities on Tuesday. Another 15,431 more positive COVID-19 cases were reported to bring that total to 1,392,123.

DeSantis said 22 Publix pharmacies in Hernando, Citrus and Marion counties will administer about 15,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to customers 65 and older.

Registered Republicans outnumber Democrats by about 248,000 to 156,000 in those three counties. DeSantis, a Republican, didn’t say why the counties were chosen but added that he hoped to expand the program statewide.

Each store can schedule about 120 vaccinations a day while supplies last, Lakeland-based Publix said.

The vaccinations will require an appointment made at publix.com/ COVIDvaccine and will start Thursday. They will be provided at no cost, but those with insurance will need to bring their insurance card, and customers without insurance will need to provide their driver’s license or Social Security number.

“We’re grateful to play a role in helping to protect the health and well-being of people at risk of serious complications from the coronavirus,” Publix’s vice president of pharmacy Dain Rusk said in a release. “We look forward to a time when everyone who wants a vaccination is able to receive one.”

DeSantis again touted his policy of giving seniors priority over essential workers, which went against CDC recommendations. But he added that there were only about “several hundred thousand” vaccine doses available right now for the about 4.4 million people age 65 and older in Florida.

“We do not have 4.4 million vaccine doses sitting on the shelf right now,” he said. “So I just ask people to be patient.”

In Central Florida, Orlando Health announced Sunday that they would begin vaccinating seniors beginning next week. Seminole County also opened up its vaccination portal to new registrations Tuesday morning, but appointments were quickly booked through next week.

Orange County has not had any new appointments available through its website since Dec. 29, and Osceola was not scheduling any new appointments either.

“This is kind of the first inning,” DeSantis said. “If you don’t get in this time, try the next day. And the next day as we get more vaccines, there’s going to be even more opportunities to be able to get it. So we’re not going to quit on this. Everyone who’s 65 and older, who wants a vaccine, we’re committed to delivering it.”

DeSantis has blamed some of the slowdowns on the vaccines being distributed right before the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

“Two weeks ago I said, ‘Look, there’s going to be a decline at Christmas … and a decline at New Year’s Eve,’ and that happened,” DeSantis said Monday at a press conference at Orlando Health in Longwood. “That’s just the reality of the situation.”

He added that Israel led the world in the number of doses administered per capita.

“If Israel got those doses two days before Passover, they wouldn’t have gotten this many [shots],” he said.

DeSantis also had a prickly reaction Monday to a CNN reporter’s question about seniors having to wait in lines outdoors in lawn chairs in Lee County, including some who camped out overnight.

“Why did that happen?”

DeSantis asked CNN reporter Rosa Flores at a press conference in Miami. “Did you investigate why?”

“That’s my question to you, governor,” Flores responded. “You are the governor of the state. I am not the governor of the state.”

DeSantis said the reason for the lines in Lee County were “because we distributed vaccine [to] the hospitals and the hospitals said, ‘first-come, first-serve. If you show up, we’ll do it.’ So they didn’t use a registration system. There wasn’t anything that was done [to cause long lines]. And there’s a lot of demand for it. So people are going to want to go ahead and get it.”

Florida, he said, “is not dictating to the hospitals … that would be a total disaster. These guys are much more competent to be able to deliver health care services than a state government could ever be.”

DeSantis also warned hospitals that their vaccine allotments would be reduced if they don’t speed up their vaccinations. In doing so, he echoed his fierce rival, Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who warned hospitals they could be fined if they don’t speed up vaccinations.

Cuomo is also being criticized for his state’s rollout, in which about 32% of available vaccines have been successfully administered.

DeSantis’ office didn’t alert the news media about the Ocala event through a press release before the event as it has for dozens of similar COVID-19 events since March. DeSantis posted a link to the website of the Florida Channel, a state-run news station, which carried the event live on the governor’s Twitter feed just before it started.

DeSantis spokeswoman Meredith Beatrice said the coverage of the event was “pooled” due to social distancing requirements at the business. But news pools are typically chosen at random among outlets, and Florida Channel was the only news outlet invited.

Beatrice did not answer questions about why there was no notice given about the event ahead of time.