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An injection of the COVID-19 vaccine is given to an individual at the Florida Department of Health – Osceola. Photo/Florida Department of Health – Osceola
The Florida Department of Health in Osceola County distributed the last of its doses of the COVID-19 vaccine Monday.
Spokesman Jeremy Lanier said the department hasn’t gotten word about when it will be resupplied.
A total of 7,100 doses of the vaccine had been distributed in Osceola.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is expected to receive and distribute 250,000 more doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines this week. Healthcare workers and people 65 and older are the two major groups that qualify for vaccination.
It’s unclear how many will come to Osceola, but the health department is ready for the next wave and continues to offer testing throughout the county, Lanier said. All the county’s hospitals and Osceola Community Health Services are also offering the vaccine while the post-holiday spike in COVID-19 cases continues.
The Florida Department of Health on Monday reported that about 550,000 people had received the vaccine.
At a press conference in The Villages on Tuesday, Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the state is following new federal guidelines to provide as many first doses of the vaccine to the most vulnerable populations as soon as possible, and to stop holding back any shots for second doses right now.
But he stressed that Florida will ensure that those who have had their first shot also get the booster.
“We’re not doing the booster, that’s important to know,” DeSantis said. “To get that 95 percent (efficacy) you’ve got to do the booster.”
The worst-case scenario, he said, would be having to hold off on firstround shots at the end of February to ensure people got the secondround booster.
“We’re prepared either way,” he said. “If you can get Florida more, we have the throughput to the get the shot into seniors’ arms.”
DeSantis said The Villages — a massive retirement community spanning parts of Lake, Sumter and Marion counties — is one of dozens of ideal sites in the state for drive-through vaccinations for the 65-and-up community and that it can dole out between 800 and 1,000 doses a day.
En masse distribution is the most efficient and safest delivery system although individual vaccinations in offices, pharmacies and hospitals are also part of the big-picture plan for inoculating residents.
Publix supermarkets is expanding a pilot program that’s distributing the vaccine at its pharmacies in north Florida, which borders Georgia and Alabama.
