Florida To Begin Vaccinating Residents Age 50 And Up Monday

TAMPA, FL — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday that residents 50 and older will be eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine starting Monday, March 22. and that everyone will likely be eligible by May 1.

“We feel confident going to 50-plus,” DeSantis said at a joint news conference with Florida’s Director of Emergency Management Jared Moskowitz. “It makes a lot of sense right now.”

DeSantis' executive order makes 2.83 million more people in Florida eligible to receive the vaccine.

On Monday, DeSantis began offering vaccines to those age 60 and up. In the five days since, he said there's only been a modest increase in the demand for vaccines, so he said he feels comfortable lowering the age eligibility to 50.

DeSantis said he expects the demand for the vaccine will go down as the eligibility age gets younger because younger adults aren't as vulnerable to severe symptoms if they are infected with the virus Younger adults don't feel the same urgency to be vaccinated as those age 65 and up.

"There will always be some people who decline to be vaccinated," he said. "I don't expect to ever have 100 percent of any age group vaccinated."

He said about the best that can be expected is an 80 percent vaccination rate.

More than three million people in the most vulnerable age bracket, those age 65 and up, have now been vaccinated, he said. That's about 70 percent of Florida's 4.5 million people in that age bracket.

He said the Florida Division of Emergency Management and the Federal Emergency Management Administration are now focused on forming strike teams to vaccinate homebound seniors who haven't been able to travel to a vaccination clinic to get the shot.

DeSantis's announcement means the following residents are eligible to receive the vaccine as of Monday:

• Residents and staff of long-term care facilities
• All residents age 50 and up
• Health care workers with direct patient contact
• People who are “extremely vulnerable” to the virus due to a pre-existing condition and have a state form signed by a physician

As of Thursday, the Florida Department of Health said 4,570,538 out of Florida's population of 22.2 million people have been vaccinated.

DeSantis plans to open up eligibility to all adults by May 1.

According to state data, this includes 1,810,880 people age 18 to 24, 5,215,429 people age 25 to 44 and 1,244,141 people age 45 to 49.

The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not recommended for children under the age of 18. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved for those age 16 and older.

Pharmaceutical companies are working to develop a vaccine specifically for children. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, children are not yet a priority for vaccination because most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or have no symptoms at all.

Children make up about 13 percent of all cases reported in the United States, but less than 3 percent of all reported hospitalizations and less than 0.21 percent of all deaths, according to the CDC.

See related story: How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In Florida

In the meantime, Florida's downward positivity trend is holding steady with a current positivity rate of 5.02 percent as of Friday.

Of the 101,591 people who were tested for the coronavirus on Thursday, 5,101 tested positive and 94,490 tested negative.

Florida is just shy of breaking the two million mark for positive test results since the pandemic was declared a year ago.

According to the Florida Department of Health, 1,999,257 people have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past 12 months. Of those, 83,189 had symptoms severe enough to require hospitalization and 32,651 people have died.

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Florida's Positivity Rate