PENSACOLA, Fla. — Gov. Ron DeSantis continued to reiterate that with the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine falling in Florida, he expects the state to offer the shot to most adults in the coming weeks.
DeSantis made the announcement at Zion Hope Primitive Baptist Church in Pensacola.
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The governor announced the church received 2,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, where they will give shots to residents 50 years and older over the next three days.
"We hope to get more Johnson & Johnson [doses] over the next couple of weeks, although right now, we're not scheduled to get anymore. But we weren't scheduled to get any this week, and they did trickle this out," DeSantis said.
He said the number of Pfizer and Moderna doses coming into the state has been flat for the last few weeks, but the figure is higher than in January.
Effective Monday, Florida residents 50 and older are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
"The demand [for the shot] was more intense at the beginning of January than it is right now. … If the demand continues to be manageable, we want to lower the age again at the appropriate time," DeSantis said.
More than three million seniors in Florida have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the governor.
"We're going to get to a point where this is just going to be available to everyone. I think that's going to happen relatively soon," DeSantis said.
Referring to President Joe Biden's push to have the vaccine open to all adults in the U.S. by May 1, DeSantis said he expected that to happen by at least April.
"That's going to happen [in Florida] way before May 1, so stay tuned on that," DeSantis said.
The governor said a few weeks ago that he expected Florida to offer the COVID-19 vaccine to all adults by "sometime in April."
The latest figures from the state show there have been more than 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases since the beginning of the pandemic.
