Thousands of Floridian healthcare workers have been vaccinated. Long-term care staff and residents started getting the vaccine Dec. 18.
Last week, Florida got a shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, and now the Moderna vaccine has arrived as well. The Florida Department of Health reports that medical officials have administered 40,037 COVID vaccine doses since yesterday morning.
Gov. Ron DeSantis said Florida was initially allotted about 180,000 doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and expected to receive an additional 450,000 doses over the next two weeks, but he said some shipments are delayed. He later tweeted that the Sunshine State got 367,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine today. Doses of the vaccine will be distributed to 173 hospital locations across 43 counties throughout the state.
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On Dec. 14, Vanessa Arroyo, a frontline nurse, was Florida’s first patient to receive the COVID vaccine. Most of those vaccinations have occurred in South Florida in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, where more than 15,000 people combined have been vaccinated so far.
The Florida Department of Health released a COVID-19 vaccine summary that will be updated daily. The report includes a breakdown of who has received the vaccine by age, race, sex, and county.
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Here is the break down by race for Dec. 19 – Dec. 20:
- American Indian/Alaskan: 119
- Black: 2,855
- White: 23,577
- Other: 7,534
- Unknown: 5,952
Healthcare workers and government officials received the COVID vaccine first. Then, on Dec. 18, Walgreens and CVS started vaccinating staff and residents at long-term care facilities in Jacksonville. They have allotted 60,000 initial doses for long-term care workers and residents.
Who Is Next in Line for the Vaccine?
It is unlikely that the COVID vaccine will be available to the general public until sometime next year.
The order of distribution, according to the Florida Department of Health:
- People with underlying medical conditions who are at risk of severe COVID-19 illness
- People 65 years of age and older
- People from racial and ethnic minority groups will get the vaccine
- People living in correctional and detention facilities
- People attending colleges/universities
- People with disabilities
- People who are underinsured or uninsured
This plan can change, depending on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
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Araceli Cruz is a Content Producer for The Americano. Her stories have been published in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, Refinery29, Mic, The Cut, Zora, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, and others.
