Florida To Receive 179,400 Initial Doses Of Pfizer Vaccine, DeSantis Says

Governor Ron DeSantis says Florida will likely receive its first allocation of a COVID-19 vaccine within the week.

Speaking in a video released by his office Thursday, DeSantis said the federal government is giving the state over 179,000 doses of the vaccine from Pfizer.

"97,500 doses will be sent to hospitals to administer vaccine to high-contact and high-exposure health care personnel. 60,450 doses of vaccine will be sent to CVS and Walgreens for use in long-term care facilities."

DeSantis said the remaining 21,000 doses will go directly to the Florida Department of Health.

"We will be using strike teams from Health, the Florida Division of Emergency Management, and the Florida National Guard to go into long-term care facilities and administer the vaccine in areas with a high concentration of facilities," he said.

The governor added that he hopes to have information about additional doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and possibly the vaccine from Moderna, next week.

A federal advisory panel approved Pfizer’s vaccine Thursday, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to follow that with a final decision on approval within days.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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