Governor says Florida approaching 1M seniors vaccinated

Florida has nearly vaccinated 1 million seniors for the coronavirus in Florida to date, according to Gov. Ron DeSantis and the State.

The governor said Friday COVID-19 vaccine doses are going out as fast as they are coming in, and distribution is outpacing the supply. But the state’s count tells a different story.

“It’s just frustrating because we can’t get shots, and we should have them at our age,” Bud Ruff said.

Ruff is 90 years old. His wife is 100 years old.

“For 100 she does well; she walks,” Ruff said. “I got on the website with Publix last week … There was 10 locations you could pick from, so the location come up, they were all on the East Coast. Forget that because I can’t drive her.”

The latest numbers on the CDC website show Florida has received just over 2.6 million vaccines, and the numbers show just over 1.3 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.

“If they are holding it, I don’t know what they’re holding it for,” Ann Garlando said.

Gov. DeSantis says there’s a delay in reporting, and the State doesn’t hold back second doses.

Garlando still wants to know why vaccine sites aren’t handing out more shots.

“If we received 1,000 vaccines on one week, we know that those thousand people need to get their second dose,” said Kristine Hollingsworth with Florida Department of Health in Collier County. “In 28 days later, we will receive another 1,000 doses for them.”

Hollingsworth says they’re using everything they get. The State does keep a small amount of doses in reserve.

“Department of emergency management keeps a small cache,” DeSantis said publicly. “Because what we don’t want to have happen is there’ll be a situation where someone all of a sudden needs 200 doses for a second dose, or maybe they have people that are that are waiting in line and they just miscalculated.”

The governor said the State expects to receive 266,000 more vaccines next week. There is no word how many of those will come to Southwest Florida.

NCH Healthcare Systems has received nearly 10,000 doses and is close to wrapping up round two of the Moderna shots.

“I don’t think it can get worse, I think, so it has to get better,” Ruff said.

MORE:

Florida Approaching Nearly One Million Seniors Vaccinated

CDC – COVID-19 Vaccinations in the United States​