Florida governor prepares for COVID-19 vaccine’s first week
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida is ready to make use of the first COVID-19 vaccine doses as soon as federal officials give the green light, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Friday.
The vaccine produced by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech won a critical endorsement Thursday from a Food and Drug Administration panel of outside advisers, and signoff from the agency — which is expected within days — is the next step needed to get the shots to the public. The FDA said earlier Friday that it “will rapidly work” to grant emergency use of the vaccine.
Besides the hospital distribution of 97,500 doses for health care workers, DeSantis said CVS and Walgreens have a contract with the federal government’s Health and Human Services to get more 60,000 people vaccinated in long-term care facilities.
The governor said the state’s health department will also deploy “strike teams” to other nursing homes, mentioning Pinellas County, home to St. Petersburg, and Broward County, home to Fort Lauderdale, to add to the private pharmacies’ effort with about 25,000 doses.
“To be able to have vaccines available for the most vulnerable residents that will be something that will be a game changer,” DeSantis said. “We should be optimistic about what could be coming down the pike here.”
DeSantis expressed hope that emergency use authorization would come Friday.
“That will then unlock the ability to start receiving shipments of the vaccine,” DeSantis said at a press conference in Tampa.
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