Two locations in South Florida will be between different worship centers in the state that will begin to provide the COVID vaccine to seniors.
Florida government Ron DeSantis announced the locations Sunday in Lynn Haven, just outside Panama City. Facilities include Hollywood locations at the Koinonia Worship Center and a Fort Lauderdale location at New Mount Olive Baptist Church.
Other locations in the state include Lynn Haven, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tampa, and St. Lucie. DeSantis added that the sites are intended to give the vaccine to people in predominantly black communities in the state.
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“You see some of these big hospitals starting to do a lot of vaccinations and we appreciate that,” DeSantis said when describing the different ways the state is trying to vaccinate residents.
Saturday, the state’s Department of Emergency Management said Florida expects to receive an additional 250,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines in the coming week. The state has already received more than 1.2 million doses to date.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state now averages about 40,000 shots a day and is willing to increase that number when the state gets more supply from the federal government.
“Demand for the vaccine is high, and we know there is no time to waste when it comes to taking guns,” DeSantis said in a taped statement released Saturday.
The state makes vaccinations available to primary care health professionals, staff and residents of long-term care facilities and nursing homes, and seniors 65 and older.
“We have more than 4.5 million seniors in the state and prioritizing them for the vaccine is the most effective tool we have to fight the pandemic,” said DeSantis.