Gov. DeSantis Announces 56 New Locations To Give COVID-19 Vaccine

ACROSS FLORIDA — Gov. Ron DeSantis announced additional Florida counties on the East Coast that will start administering the COVID-19 vaccines at Publix locations during two news conferences on Wednesday.

"Publix is in every community, and if we can get it in every community, it's going to get easier to get the vaccines," DeSantis said outside Sawgrass Village Publix in Ponte Vedra.

A week ago, Florida started expanding its vaccine distributions to people 65 and over at various Publix stores. DeSantis said they are expanding to 56 additional pharmacies in the grocery store chain that include St. Johns, Flagler, Volusia and Collier counties.

Stores in these counties will start administering the vaccines on Thursday by appointment only. DeSantis said for residents to not panic when locations run out of vaccines because they will eventually get another supply.

He wants seniors to get the booster shot. The governor explained that if he gets 250,000 doses, another 250,000 is being held for the second dose.

"Florida is committed to the booster shot," he said. "We think you need both shots for Pfizer and Moderna to reach the 95 percent efficacy."

DeSantis said nearly 400,000 seniors have received a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Florida Department of Health reported Wednesday that the state's most recent number of positive coronavirus cases is at 1,517,472. These are the numbers that have been reported since March. The number of resident hospitalizations for coronavirus is at 66,634; coronavirus-related deaths are at 22,759.

At DeSantis' news conference at Publix Pebble Creek in Napes Wednesday afternoon, he announced Collier County will start administering vaccines to seniors at 16 Publix locations within the county. He predicted at least 1,600 doses will be given a day among the combined stores in Collier.

Medium-sized counties giving the vaccine at Publix has been DeSantis's focus. He explained that large cities such as Miami and Jacksonville have a larger infrastructure of hospitals in place to administer doses.

Appointments can be scheduled online at the designated Publix locations for vaccines.

According to FDOH, Pinellas County has 52,357 positive cases; Hillsborough has 89,043 cases; Polk has 43,839 cases; Pasco has 25,785 cases; Sarasota has 21,898 cases; Manatee has 25,379 cases; and Dade has 334,217 cases.